International: All stories
Hunger increasing thanks to wars and climate change
20 Oct 2017
Despite efforts to end food shortages, hunger is on the rise again after years of decline, a UN report says.
How Thailand built a top sustainable stock exchange
20 Oct 2017
Sustainability reporting is not mandatory in Thailand - and yet Thai firms outnumber their Asean peers in the latest Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.
Toxic firefighting chemicals public health challenge
20 Oct 2017
The contamination of drinking water by toxic firefighting chemicals is the most seminal public health challenge of coming decades, says a US environmental official.
Turnbull convinces party to unite on energy policy
19 Oct 2017
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has secured party-room backing to impose new reliability and emissions reduction guarantees on energy retailers and large energy users from 2020.
Planting the planet could cut as much carbon as halting oil
19 Oct 2017
Planting forests and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement.
KITCHEN CRIMES: The hidden scandal of hotel food waste
19 Oct 2017
What if every time you sat down for a meal, you threw one-quarter of it in the trash? That’s the hidden story of waste in the hospitality industry.
How potatoes and bananas can keep your house warm
19 Oct 2017
Potatoes and bananas reborn as insulation, peanuts processed into partition boards and mushroom bricks that grow in five days ... just some of the ways the building trade could change its wasteful ways and construct virtuous new cities.
Texas town mayor turns green-power tyro
19 Oct 2017
The mayor of Georgetown, Texas, Dale Ross is ‘a good little Republican’ – but ever since his city weaned itself off fossil fuels, he has become a hero to environmentalists.
Egypt shaped by volcanoes and climate change
19 Oct 2017
Volcanic eruptions and climate change have been linked to periods of social unrest and the eventual downfall one of Ancient Egypt's most famous dynasties.
NZ goes for 'triple win' at Bonn climate talks
18 Oct 2017
New Zealand will push a “triple win” for agriculture at international climate talks in Bonn next month.
Qantas eyes transpacific biofuel flights by 2020
18 Oct 2017
Qantas has announced that its Los Angeles to Melbourne flights will be powered by biofuel from 2020.
World's choking cities need fewer cars, not cleaner cars
18 Oct 2017
Electric cars won’t eradicate city gridlocks and air pollution, but carbon footprints could be cut by favouring pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit.
Trump stance on Paris deal sad, says Pope
18 Oct 2017
Speaking on World Food Day, Francis said climate change was a driver of hunger and migration and the Paris climate agreement was the legal basis for the solution.
NZ fires first COP23 shots in Fiji today
17 Oct 2017
Acting climate minister Paula Bennett will deliver New Zealand’s opening statement at the pre-COP climate talks in Fiji today.
Starving penguins a sign that all is not well in Antarctica
17 Oct 2017
The awful news that all but two penguin chicks have starved to death out of a colony of almost 40,000 birds is a grim illustration of the enormous pressure Antarctic wildlife is under.
Chevron dumps plan to drill in Australian Bight
17 Oct 2017
Chevron has become the second big oil company to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, almost exactly a year after BP ditched its more advanced plans for the untapped basin.
One-third of population could be living in Africa by 2100
17 Oct 2017
Today, one out of six people on Earth live in Africa. These same projections predict that the proportion will be one in four in 2050 and more than one in three by 2100.
EU rules out tax on plastic products to reduce waste
17 Oct 2017
The European Union has opted for a public awareness campaign on the impact of plastics on the environment, saying a tax would not be sustainable.
UK climate masterplan – the grownups have finally won
16 Oct 2017
The UK Government’s clean growth strategy unequivocally states that tackling climate change and a prosperous economy go hand in hand.
How NASA tracks carbon emissions from space
16 Oct 2017
Fires, drought and warmer temperatures were to blame for excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the 2015-2016 El Niño, say scientists with NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
Germany to miss climate targets ‘disastrously’
16 Oct 2017
Germany’s environment ministry fears high emissions from coal-fired power plants and transport will make the country miss its 2020 climate targets by a wider margin than previously anticipated.
NOT GUILTY: Easter Island falsely blamed for own demise
16 Oct 2017
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become the ultimate parable for humankind’s selfishness; a moral tale of the dangers of environmental destruction. But new research paints a very different picture.
Italy's ominous supervolcano shows signs of waking
16 Oct 2017
A super volcano in Italy is waking up. Scientists are trying to predict what it will do next, and what its unrest means for volcanoes worldwide.
BALTIC BURPS: Clams giving off as much gas as 20,000 cows
16 Oct 2017
Scientists have found clams and worms in the Baltic Sea are giving off as much gas as 20,000 dairy cows.
Oxford city to ban cars in zero-emissions zone
13 Oct 2017
Polluting vehicles would be banned from Oxford city centre under plans to bring in what officials believe would be the world’s first zero emissions zone.
Asean banks need to raise sustainable finance bar
13 Oct 2017
Southeast Asia’s banks have only just started to think about their impact on society and the environment.
IMF tells rich nations climate change is urgent business
12 Oct 2017
The International Monetary Fund has warned the world’s richest nations to have a greater sense of urgency about climate change.
Puerto Rico wants Tesla to make it a showpiece
12 Oct 2017
Hurricane-hit Puerto Rico has urged Tesla to turn the islands into a flagship project that can show the world what solar and batteries can do.
Brazil records worst month for forest fires
12 Oct 2017
Brazil has seen more forest fires in September than in any single month since records began, and authorities have warned that 2017 could surpass the worst year on record if action is not taken soon.
LOSING NEMO: When the anemone becomes the enemy
12 Oct 2017
The anemonefish – better known as Nemo after the children’s film Finding Nemo – is at risk from the impacts of climate change.
Abbott reckons climate change is 'probably doing good'
11 Oct 2017
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has suggested climate change is “probably doing good” in a speech in London in which he likened policies to combat it to “primitive people once killing goats to appease the volcano gods”.
German Greens put climate progress top of agenda
11 Oct 2017
Leading Green politicians in Germany have said a coalition agreement with Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the free-market Free Democratic party will be contingent on climate policy progress.
Marine life faces mass extinction by 2100
11 Oct 2017
Mass marine extinction may be inevitable if humans go on burning fossil fuels under the notorious “business as usual” scenario.
India bans Diwali fireworks to tackle Delhi's air pollution
11 Oct 2017
India’s supreme court has banned the sale of fireworks in Delhi during the upcoming Diwali festival, hoping to prevent the usual spike in toxic air pollution levels that accompany the holiday.
The war on coal is over, says US environment chief
10 Oct 2017
“The war on coal is over,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declared as he announced that this week he will sign a new rule overriding Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan.
Americans seem to care least about climate change
10 Oct 2017
When asked about major threats to their country, Europeans are more likely than Americans to cite global climate change.
Think you’re too smart to be taken in by silly food labels?
10 Oct 2017
The bakery that tried to list ‘love’ as a granola ingredient might not have got away with it, but elsewhere dubious and confusing labelling is rife – and it is ruining our diets.
Mackerel on the move stir up European politics
10 Oct 2017
The impacts of climate change can lead to conflict, but conflict not necessarily leads to violence. This is exemplified with the so-called ‘’mackerel case’’.
Ministry denies cutting climate aid to Pacific
9 Oct 2017
New Zealand is denying an accusation that it is cutting its climate aid to the Pacific.
Lawsuits try to paint green activism as a racket
9 Oct 2017
Logging and pipeline companies are using a new legal tactic to seek damages from Greenpeace and other groups. The long-shot cases are having a chilling effect.
Cities must face the reality of living with 50deg heat
9 Oct 2017
The predictions of extreme heat in Australian cities is worrying, but not particularly surprising given the fact that the country is setting hot weather records at 12 times the pace of cold ones. But it does call for an urgent response.
Trump picks coal lobbyist to help to lead EPA
9 Oct 2017
President Trump's nominee to be second in command at the Environmental Protection Agency helped to kill bipartisan climate legislation during his time as a top Senate aide.
Oceans tell the story of how our planet is warming
6 Oct 2017
More than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed into the oceans.
Amazon fires pushing climate change beyond human control
6 Oct 2017
A leading Amazon scientist has highlighted grave problems in Brazil’s management of the world’s most important forest as climate-driven fires eat it away.
Brisbane aims to be centre for aviation biofuel
6 Oct 2017
Brisbane is set to become a hub for sustainable aviation fuel under an agreement between Virgin Australia and United States-based biofuel producer Gevo.
Sweltering September sets Australian records
6 Oct 2017
Australian temperature records tumbled again in September, with the country experiencing the hottest day since records began, and New South Wales breaking that record twice within a few days.
Thou shalt not burn coal ... Catholics shun fossil fuels
5 Oct 2017
Forty Roman Catholic groups have announced they will shun investments in fossil fuels and have urged others to follow suit.
Australian cities head for 50deg summer days
5 Oct 2017
Even if the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature rise to below 2deg is met, summer heatwaves in major Australian cities are likely to reach highs of 50deg by 2040.
Scotland bans fracking after public protests
5 Oct 2017
The Scottish government has banned fracking after a consultation found overwhelming public opposition and little economic justification for the industry.
New York aims to be carbon neutral by 2050
5 Oct 2017
Donald Trump’s home city aligns its strategy with tough 1.5deg global warming limit, in defiance of the president’s hostility to climate action.
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.
