International: All stories
Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens human survival
24 Oct 2017
Pollution kills at least nine million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, according to the most comprehensive global analysis to date, which warns the crisis “threatens the continuing survival of human societies”.
No China, so what happens now to world’s recycling?
24 Oct 2017
In the wake of China's announcement earlier this year that it would cut imports of the world's waste there are concerns that much of the lower grade materials will have nowhere else to go.
Development banks join forces to fight climate change
24 Oct 2017
Credit institutions worth $3000 billion have joined forces to throw their weight behind sustainable development.
UK hints at e-bike subsidy to get people moving
24 Oct 2017
The UK government might consider providing subsidies for electric bicycles and electric cars as part of a concerted policy effort to get more people cycling.
Brazilian Amazon loses 660,000ha of forest in one year
24 Oct 2017
The Brazilian Amazon lost 6,624 sq km of forest between August 2016 and July 2017.
How can we cook a more sustainable Sunday roast?
24 Oct 2017
Messing with the Sunday roast proably is a step too far for many people. So how might we create a more sustainable Sunday roast?
Fiji announces $100m ‘climate bond’ ahead of climate talks
20 Oct 2017
Fiji aims to raise $100 million ($NZ68m) to build resilience to climate change and support a shift to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Environmental activism no racket, rules judge
20 Oct 2017
A judge has dismissed a Canadian logging company's lawsuit against Greenpeace and another activist group that accused them of running a criminal enterprise through their environmental campaigns.
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.
Battery subsidy scheme set for 'urgent' overhaul as costs run out of control
16 Dec 2025
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced big changes to the government's battery subsidy scheme amid claims most of its $2.3 billion budget has been spent in just six months.
EPA erases references to human-caused climate change from websites
19 Dec 2025
EPA has scrubbed references to people’s contribution to rising temperatures from some of its climate change webpages.
Verra cancels four tree planting projects in China. And starts reviews of 45 more projects
16 Dec 2025
“Multiple carbon projects in China are facing serious allegations regarding the authenticity of government approval documents."
France updates its 2050 carbon neutrality roadmap
17 Dec 2025
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, France released a revamped climate plan promising to phase out oil and gas and sharply increase electricity use.
Net-zero scenario is ‘cheapest option’ for UK, says energy system operator
15 Dec 2025
A scenario that meets the “net-zero by 2050” goal would be the “cheapest” option for the UK, according to modelling by the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
The ecological havens flourishing beneath power lines
19 Dec 2025
Initiatives to foster native wildflowers, grasses and shrubs are turning utility corridors into wildlife corridors.
‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia
12 Dec 2025
Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’.
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore and seabirds
19 Dec 2025
Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
18 Dec 2025
Region known as ‘world’s refrigerator’ is heating up as much as four times as quickly as global average, Noaa experts say.
Are rainforests now a cause of, rather than the answer to, climate change?
15 Dec 2025
A new study finds that Africa’s forests, responsible for one-fifth of global carbon removal, are beginning to generate carbon as the result of human activity.
Thousands of climate disasters are not included in official reports from Amazonian countries
12 Dec 2025
More than 12,500 extreme weather events impacted the Amazon and its population in 10 years, but countries have not generated enough information about it, according to a new scientific study.
UN environment report 'hijacked' by US and others over fossil fuels, top scientist says
11 Dec 2025
A key UN report on the state of the global environment has been "hijacked" by the United States and other countries who were unwilling to go along with the scientific findings, the co-chair has told the BBC.
