International: All stories
WORTHY AWARD: 'Single-use' named 2018 word of the year
9 Nov 2018
Single-use, a term referring to products – often made of plastic – that are made to be used once and thrown away, has been named Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2018.
Climate change back on US political agenda
8 Nov 2018
With their win of control of the US House of Representatives, Democrats will now have the numbers to put climate change issues back on the Congressional agenda.
Aussie schoolkids take action over climate change inaction
8 Nov 2018
Hundreds of students around Australia are preparing to strike from school because of what they say is a failure by politicians to recognise climate change as an emergency.
Palau bans sunscreen to protect coral reefs
8 Nov 2018
Palau is set to become the first country to ban reef-toxic sunscreen.
Ministers call for transparency in climate finance
7 Nov 2018
EU economy and finance ministers have stressed the need to scale up public and private money for climate change.
E-car demand fuels rise in Congo child labour
7 Nov 2018
Demand for electric vehicles is fuelling a rise in child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, experts said this week, urging companies to take action as the industry expands.
Unseasonably hot, you say? Not any more
7 Nov 2018
The record hot weather being experienced across prts of Australia is now the new normal as the effects of climate change become baked-in.
Living normally, a platypus could ingest 69 drugs a day
7 Nov 2018
Insects near waste water could give a platypus or trout half a daily human dose of antidepressants, a new study reveals.
Plastics pollution on our beaches is becoming a pain
6 Nov 2018
Plastic rubbish on New Zealand beaches is not only hurting wildlife, it’s hurting us, too.
In two years we could face our own extinction, says UN
6 Nov 2018
The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.
Is corporate Australia facing a 'tipping point'?
6 Nov 2018
In the parlance of climate science, a "tipping point" is a dire prospect – a critical threshold breach that triggers an abrupt and rapid change in climate.
Court allows children's climate case to go ahead
6 Nov 2018
Two weeks after it put the case on hold, the US. Supreme Court has allowed a lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults against the federal government over climate change to proceed.
Threatened cities trade sea walls for parks
5 Nov 2018
Under a new plan to deal with higher tides, Boston will allow the rising water to come in to the city, rather than fighting to keep it out.
Climate warming messes with the jet stream
5 Nov 2018
Greenhouse gases are increasingly disrupting the jet stream, a powerful river of winds that steers weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere.
Dreaded tsetse flies wilt in Africa’s growing heat
5 Nov 2018
Global warming might have done one good thing for the Zambezi Valley: it may have done for the tsetse flies, with conditions soon too hot for them to breed there any longer.
Scientists will risk prison to get climate action
2 Nov 2018
A group of British scientists and their supporters is willing to risk a prison term to press governments to tackle climate change and environmental crises.
The Paris climate gang is breaking up
2 Nov 2018
In 2015, a group of countries banded together to shape the global climate pact, but political turmoil is pulling the alliance apart.
Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet
2 Nov 2018
Growing food without plants or animals sounds like science fiction. But it could stop environmental destruction.
Bolsonaro to merge environment and agriculture
2 Nov 2018
Brazil President-elect Jair Bolsonaro will merge the environment and agriculture ministries, a move activists have warned could imperil the Amazon rainforest.
NSW launches emerging energy programme
2 Nov 2018
New South Wales has launched one of the most significant energy transition projects in Australia designed to help to replace most of the state’s ageing coal plants with wind, solar and storage.
US makers double down on utes and SUVs
2 Nov 2018
The big three US vehicle makers - GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler - talk about a cleaner future, but in reality are pushing the sales of gas-guzzling SUVs and utes.
Only 16 countries meet their Paris commitment
1 Nov 2018
Only 16 countries out of the 197 that signed the Paris Agreement have defined national climate action plan ambitious enough to meet their pledges.
Wildlife in 'mindblowing' crisis, says WWF
1 Nov 2018
Global wildlife populations have fallen by 60 per cent in just over four decades, as accelerating pollution, deforestation, climate change and other manmade factors have created a "mindblowing" crisis, the World Wildlife Fund says in a new report.
Climate change drives migrant caravan
1 Nov 2018
While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the Central Amica exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worse.
UK announces tax on plastic packaging
1 Nov 2018
The UK has announced a world-leading plastics tax which will apply to any business that produces or imports plastic packaging that does not contain at least 30 per cent recycled content.
Chinese city launching own moon to save on power bill
1 Nov 2018
A private aerospace institute in China plans to launch its own moon to save money on nightime lighting in a provincial city.
Investors challenge 55 companies on climate lobbying
31 Oct 2018
Five weeks before a pivotal UN climate conference starts, a group of investors, led by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Swedish national pension fund, has sent a letter to 55 companies to challenge them on climate lobbying.
Polish utility sued over financial risk of coal plant
31 Oct 2018
Activist shareholders have filed a climate lawsuit against utility Enea over a planned €1.2 billion coal plant in north-east Poland.
Clean energy is surging – and headed for a fall
31 Oct 2018
The relentlessly corrosive nature of Australian political debate about climate change can sometimes mask that this is a golden moment for the clean energy industry.
Big brands pledge to turn tide on plastic waste
31 Oct 2018
Big brands – from Coca Cola to Kellogg – have pledged to cut all plastic waste from their operations in what the UN calls the most ambitious effort yet to fight plastic pollution.
Will Trump of the Tropics wreck Amazon rainforest?
30 Oct 2018
Will Jair Bolsonaro dedicate himself to the meticulous destruction of the Amazon now he has won Brazil's presidential election?
Catholic bishops call for faith in Paris target
30 Oct 2018
Catholic Church leaders have urged governments around the world to ramp up their climate action efforts, calling for “ambitious implementation” of the Paris Agreement.
Litigation likely to rise on back of IPCC report
30 Oct 2018
Climate-related litigations are set to break new grounds following the rcent landmark IPCC report which provides lawyers with new evidence that limiting global warming to 1.5deg is still possible.
Air pollution the new tobacco, warns WHO head
29 Oct 2018
Air pollution is the new tobacco, the head of the World Health Organisation has warned, saying the simple act of breathing is killing seven million people a year and harming billions more.
Spain to close most coalmines in $400m deal
29 Oct 2018
Spain is to shut down most of its coalmines by the end of the year after government and unions struck a deal that will mean €250m ($NZ430m) will be invested in mining regions over the next decade.
How boiling Darwin could keep the people and regain its cool
29 Oct 2018
July 2018 in Darwin was 2deg hotter than any previous July and the record heat has continued. Surveys show that it's the reason people are leaving the city.
Climate fund approves $1b for poor countries
29 Oct 2018
A UN Green Climate Fund backed fund has approved more than $1 billion for 19 new projects to help developing countries to tackle climate change.
Ocean-sweeper targets plastic waste in Caribbean
29 Oct 2018
SodaStream has announced the launch of its massive ocean-sweeper, a contraption designed to dismantle plastic waste patches in marine waters.
We can’t take many more populists like Bolsonaro
26 Oct 2018
Just when Earth badly needs pro-environment leaders, we get big-business strongmen. There’s a reason for this grim irony.
Hunger for raw materials bad news for the climate
26 Oct 2018
Just when you might think the world has heard an unmistakable warning of the need to curb climate change drastically and fast, along comes another warning, about humans’ voracious appetite for the raw materials we use so profligately.
Coalition digs deeper into coal and climate denial
26 Oct 2018
If the Wentworth and Wagga Wagga by-elections in Austraia were supposed to send a message to the Coalition government about the need to act on carbon emissions and embrace renewables, it hasn’t worked.
Ocean warming hits highest recorded level
25 Oct 2018
Ocean heat content set a record in the first half of 2018, with more warmth in the oceans than at any time since records began in 1940.
Brexit and Germany erode EU climate resolve
25 Oct 2018
Britain is leaving, Germany is wobbling and talks on EU emissions cuts are tipping in favour of the bloc’s more reticent countries, according to diplomatic sourcese following climate files in Brussels.
Australia shows interest in hydrogen power
25 Oct 2018
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced funding to produce renewable hydrogen from wind and solar power.
How one small island showed us how to clean up our act
25 Oct 2018
In just 10 years, the Isle of Man has rid its beaches of plastic and earned Unesco status as a world leader in ocean protection. So how did it do it?
US scientists keen to get political power
24 Oct 2018
More than a dozen scientists are candidates for US House and Senate seats this year in a wave fueled by the Trump Administration’s anti-science agenda.
Coalition could help out new power projects
24 Oct 2018
Energy minister Angus Taylor has signalled the Australian government could indemnify new power generation projects against the future risk of a carbon price, and says it could also support the retrofitting of existing coal plants.
Australia to have ultra-fast charging network
24 Oct 2018
Drivers travelling between Australia’s major cities could soon charge their electric vehicles in just 15 minutes with a super-fast network being rolled out across the country.
How a little warming paved the way for reign of the dinosaurs
24 Oct 2018
Massive flooding of Pangea millions of years ago - caused by climate warming of 4deg-7deg - led to mass extinction and allowed for dinosaurs to rapidly diversify and spread around the world.
US emissions fell in 2017 as coal plants shut
23 Oct 2018
Greenhouse gas emissions from the largest US industrial plants fell 2.7 per cent in 2017 as coal plants shut, according to the Trump administration.
Australia opens first carbon refinery, making new products from captured CO2
Today 11:30am
Australia’s first carbon refinery opened in New South Wales, capturing carbon dioxide from explosives giant Orica's ammonia-making operations on Kooragang Island and turning it into products such as concrete, paper and glass.
US defence spending on critical minerals surges in the last decade
Mon 22 Jun 2026
Members of communities affected by some of these projects said that U.S. state backing has meant projects are being fast-tracked without the necessary social and environmental checks or meaningful consultation.
China to raise power prices for energy-intensive sectors in green transition push
Fri 19 Jun 2026
Beijing’s latest road map aims to cut carbon emissions by 200 million tonnes by 2028 – but analysts say implementation may vary across regions.
Half of France under red heat alert as alcohol banned at street music festival
Tue 23 Jun 2026
France has issued red heatwave alerts for around half the country including Paris for Monday as a heatwave pushes temperatures towards record levels.
UK heatwave: 40C in June must be wake-up call on climate crisis, scientists warn
Today 11:30am
Scientists are warning that politicians are failing to appreciate the magnitude of the climate crisis after the Met Office forecast that temperatures in the UK could hit 40C for just the second time since records began.
Canada signs landmark LNG energy deal with Germany
29 May 2026
Canada has announced a landmark energy agreement with Germany that will see the first-ever long-term shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada to Europe in the coming years.
Asia warming nearly twice as fast as before
Fri 19 Jun 2026
A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlights record ocean heat, accelerating glacier loss and a series of extreme weather events causing significant human and economic losses across Asia.
‘Those blocking climate science are not our friends': Pacific leaders warn at Bonn talks
Tue 23 Jun 2026
Pacific nations and civil society groups have united at UN climate talks, pushing back against efforts to weaken agreed language on global temperature limits as negotiations continue behind closed doors.
Antarctica’s west coast missing an area of sea ice the size of France as temperatures peak 20C above average
16 Jun 2026
A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’.
Mombasa ocean summit drives progress on marine protection, but threats persist
Tue 23 Jun 2026
At the 11th Our Ocean conference in Kenya, its founder John Kerry says the ocean must become central to climate solutions and needs to be looked after.
Colombia’s climate crossroads: Trumpism casts shadow over presidential battle
26 May 2026
Colombia is a global leader in climate activism. Could US influence drag country to a future of mining and fracking?
Bonn climate talks end in “gridlock” on adaptation and emissions-cutting
Mon 22 Jun 2026
After two weeks of climate negotiations riven by arguments over finance and science, the UN climate chief expressed disappointment and denounced governments for “cherry-picking” commitments they have already made and waiting for others to move first.
