International: All stories
Wildfires are making Americans sick
17 Nov 2017
As climate change fuels large wildfires, the pollution they're releasing is making Americans sick and undermining decades of progress in cleaning the air.
MERKEL MESSAGE: Climate change decides our destiny
16 Nov 2017
“Climate change is an issue determining our destiny as mankind – it will determine the wellbeing of all of us,” the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has told the world’s nations gathered at the Bonn climate summit.
Activists sue Norway over Arctic exploration plan
16 Nov 2017
The Norwegian government is being sued by climate activists over a decision to open up areas of the Arctic Ocean for oil exploration.
Global insurance plan aims to defuse bombshell
16 Nov 2017
A scheme unveiled at the Bonn climate summit aims to help to protect 400 million poor people from extreme weather by 2020 - but not everyone is convinced.
Brazil’s recession grows as emissions rise
16 Nov 2017
Brazil’s recession has earned it an unhappy distinction: it is the only major country in the world where damage to the climate is growing while people are becoming poorer.
CHOPPER STOPPER: Too much smog for the smog-fighters
16 Nov 2017
An ambitious plan to use helicopters to fight Delhi’s air pollution has been grounded because the aircraft cannot operate in the thick smog.
HOT SPOTS: Ice cameras reveal Antarctica’s warm underbelly
16 Nov 2017
A new map of the warmth coming up from rocks beneath the Antarctic provides key data for scientists to model how the ice sheet could react to climate change.
Bonn protesters savage Trump's coal push
15 Nov 2017
The Trump team was heckled and interrupted by a protest song at the UN’s climate change summit in Bonn after using its only official appearance to say fossil fuels were vital to reducing poverty around the world.
Medibank drops millions worth fossil-fuel investments
15 Nov 2017
Australia’s largest private health insurer, Medibank, will shed tens of millions of dollars in fossil-fuel investments because of the effects of climate change on human health.
Climate change is destroying the wonders of the world
15 Nov 2017
From the Everglades in the US to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, climate change is destroying the many of the greatest wonders of the natural world.
Cities could save billions while saving the planet
15 Nov 2017
Climate change action at the local level has the potential to save as much as £7 billion each year across the 50 largest cities in the UK.
GATESVILLE: Bill buys big bit of Arizona to build a smart city
15 Nov 2017
Bill Gates is buying 25,000 acres near Phoenix, Arizona, on which to build a high-tech smart city named Belmont.
What would happen if all Americans went vegan?
15 Nov 2017
To produce four US hamburger patties takes 25 kilogrammes of animal feed, 25 square metres of land, and about 220 litres of water.
It's about to get a whole lot worse, say scientists
14 Nov 2017
The world has been given a stark warning by some of its leading scientists: there is much worse climate change on the way.
Fossil-fuel burning set to hit record high this year
14 Nov 2017
The burning of fossil fuels is set to hit a record high in 2017, climate scientists have warned, following three years of flat growth that raised hopes a peak in global emissions had been reached.
CIRCA 2017: It is sure to be among the hottest on record
14 Nov 2017
The year has a bit to run yet, but we can already be sure that 2017 will be among the hottest years on record.
Alternative American group wants seat at the table
14 Nov 2017
The United Nations should give a “seat at the table” to a powerful group of US states, cities, tribes and businesses that are committed to taking action on climate change, Michael Bloomberg has urged.
Direct democracy could offer a third climate way
14 Nov 2017
With political agreement on climate change making slow progress and direct action becoming more dangerous, we must find alternatives.
POISON PUSH: Warming helps toxins to thrive
14 Nov 2017
Many of the world’s poorest people are being poisoned by their basic foods – and global warming helps toxins to multiply.
CLIMATE CRISIS? No need to fear, the Cote d'Ivoire is here
14 Nov 2017
Just over 19,000 delegates and officials are attending the UN climate talks in Bonn. The largest party - 493 - comes from the Cote d'Ivoire.
Big cities sign emissions pledge (but not ours)
13 Nov 2017
The mayors of 25 cities with more than 150 million citizens between them say they will start cutting emissions before 2020 and will be carbon neutral by 2050.
EU strikes deal on carbon market reform
13 Nov 2017
European Union negotiators have agreed to a compromise on carbon market reforms, with the bloc keen for a deal this week to show leadership at UN climate talks in Bonn.
Fiji told it must spend billions to adapt to climate change
13 Nov 2017
Fiji must spend an amount equivalent to its entire yearly gross domestic product over the next 10 years to counter the challenges of a changing climate.
Geo-engineering can work ... if the world wants it
13 Nov 2017
Climate scientists now know that geo-engineering – in principle at least – would halt global warming and keep the world at the temperatures it will reach by 2020.
MILLIONS ON MOVE: Climate victims need refugee status
13 Nov 2017
Since 2008, about 26 million people have been displaced each year due to natural disasters, says a troubling Oxfam report.
ETS changes win us an award at Bonn talks
10 Nov 2017
Changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme have won New Zealand a Carbon Pricing Champion Award at international climate negotiations in Bonn.
The seven megatrends that could beat global warming
10 Nov 2017
With the climate tipping point just years away, the tide is turning, thanks to innovations ranging from cheap renewables to lab-grown meat and electric aircraft.
Coal-fired plant sent $1b offshore while pocketing public's $117m
10 Nov 2017
The owner of one of Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants quietly moved $1bn offshore within days of pocketing $117m from taxpayers.
Germany's dirty coalmines focus for direct action
10 Nov 2017
A giant black mark on Germany’s environmental record is scarred on the land an hour’s drive from the venue of this year’s UN climate talks in Bonn.
Victory for forests as nations vow to stop death by chocolate
10 Nov 2017
Ghana and the Ivory Coast are formulating plans to immediately put a stop to all new deforestation after an investigation found that the cocoa industry was destroying their rainforests.
Risk growing for Pacific islands, says study
10 Nov 2017
Many nations have become less vulnerable to natural disasters ranging from cyclones to earthquakes because of improved preparedness, but Pacific island states remain most at risk, a new study shows.
Fonterra to talk farming at Bonn climate talks
9 Nov 2017
Fonterra will strut its stuff tomorrow at international climate talks in Bonn.
Africans call for US to be kicked out of Bonn talks
9 Nov 2017
African campaigners have called for US negotiators to be barred from climate talks under way in Bonn.
Barclays issues €500m bond for 'green mortgages'
9 Nov 2017
UK banking giant Barclays has successfully issued a €500 million green bond - the first of its kind in the UK to use funds backed by domestic assets.
EU acts to clean up transport and boost e-vehicles
9 Nov 2017
The European Commission has a legislative package aimed at reducing CO2 emissions in road transport and encouraging the uptake of electric cars.
Can California eliminate millions of fossil cars?
9 Nov 2017
California State leaders are discussing banning the sale of the millions of cars that run on gasoline or diesel.
LOST LANDS: Rising seas washed away Pacific history
9 Nov 2017
The story of the now-vanished Micronesian island of Nahlapenlohd holds some valuable lessons about recent climate change in the western Pacific.
Auckland - clean power but lacking environmental protection
8 Nov 2017
New Zealand’s clean electricity supply has won Auckland 48th place in the 2017 Smart City Index – but its traffic congestion and lack of environmental protection have let it down.
US now only country saying it won't be part of Paris Agreement
8 Nov 2017
Syria has decided to sign the Paris agreement on climate change, the world's final functioning state to do so.
Do it differently to ensure markets do their job
8 Nov 2017
Carbon markets need to do things differently to avoid the mistakes of the Kyoto Protocol, a market watchdog says.
Sulphur pollution on the rise in India
8 Nov 2017
India is on course to surpass China as the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide.
New Zealand's team in Bonn
7 Nov 2017
New Zealand will be represented at international climate negotiations by climate minister James Shaw and Pacific minister Aupito William Sio.
The other China that wants to lead on climate change
6 Nov 2017
By PATTRICK SMELLIE | As international delegations descend on Bonn for the November 6-17 annual global climate change summit, spare a thought for the other country that calls itself China but, instead of claiming a leadership position in the global debate, is shut out on the sidelines.
UN climate summit means business
6 Nov 2017
This year’s annual UN climate summit, the twenty-third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (https://cop23.unfccc.int/) in UN jargon (or COP23 for short), starts on 6 November – and for once it may have an unusual spring in its step.
India readies for clashes with developed world at Bonn
6 Nov 2017
SEVERAL AREAS of unfinished business mean talks in Bonn could ignite as developing nations seek concessions from the industrialised world
5 things MFAT wants you to know about COP23
6 Nov 2017
INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS to put meat on the bones of the Paris Agreement start in Bonn today, with Fiji in the presidency.
Climate change will create 'world's biggest refugee crisis'
3 Nov 2017
Tens of millions of people will be forced from their homes by climate change in the next decade, creating the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen, according to a new report.
Market forces can go further, faster and cheaper to cut emissions
3 Nov 2017
Government delegations gathering in Bonn for the start of annual UN climate talks on Monday need to ramp up efforts, says the International Emissions Trading Association.
Paris possible with huge private-secctor investement
3 Nov 2017
Global investment could hold the key to fighting climate change, with $1 trillion already invested in solutions such as renewables and energy efficiency, says International Finance Corporation
Europe still drilling for oil, despite Paris Agreement
3 Nov 2017
Just days before international climate talks start in Bonn, firms are lining up to drill for oil - at great expense - in northern European waters.
Australian rainforests no longer a carbon sink – study
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Australia's tropical rainforests are among the first in the world to start emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb, scientists said Thursday, linking the "very concerning" trend to climate change.
'We’re in God’s hands now': A dispatch from Western Alaska
Today 11:00am
An immense disaster has wrought deep trauma on Western Alaska’s Indigenous residents and is raising existential questions about the future of their low-lying communities amid a changing climate and a tightening state budget.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
Thu 16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
EU plans support for countries affected by carbon border levy
Today 11:00am
The European Union will offer development funding to countries affected by the bloc's carbon border tariff, the European Commission said on Thursday, as it attempts to soothe developing economies' concerns over the policy.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Thu 16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Familiar tensions emerge at the Pacific Islands Forum
26 Sep 2025
With China-Taiwan rivalry, China-Western competition, and big carbon emitters at odds with the islands on climate policy, there is plenty of tension to go around.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
Tue 14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Wed 15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
New UN carbon market rules could reshape how investors value nature
Today 11:00am
A debate over carbon permanence – how long CO2 must stay stored to count towards offsetting emissions – is reshaping global carbon markets and could determine whether nature remains investable.
