International: All stories
COFFEE TO GO: Would you like sustainability with that?
11 May 2017
Our daily brew is creating an environmental disaster, but social enterprises are coming up with new ideas for cups, pods and coffee grinds.
One thing's for sure, climate change is not short on laws
11 May 2017
Nations around the world have adopted more than 1200 laws to curb climate change, up from about 60 two decades ago, a sign of widening efforts to limit rising temperatures.
OPINION: We must plan for climate refugees
10 May 2017
What will New Zealand do when 12,000 climate refugees from Tuvalu arrive on its doorstep?
What can we expect from the Bonn climate talks?
10 May 2017
A much-anticipated meeting of nearly 200 nations began in Bonn, Germany, yesterday to push forward global climate change action at a time when the United States is poised to do the opposite.
White House advisers postpone Paris pact talks
10 May 2017
A key meeting of White House advisers to discuss the Paris climate change agreement won't happen today as planned.
Global warming could speed up if the Pacific Ocean gets cranky
10 May 2017
Conditions in the Pacific Ocean over the coming decades will determine how fast we get to 1.5deg global warming.
Asthma patients urge EU to back air quality
10 May 2017
Organisations representing asthma patients have called on the EU governments to stick to their air quality commitments to protect citizens’ health and public budgets.
World Bank presses NZ on climate refugees
9 May 2017
The World Bank says New Zealand should accept more migrants from the Pacific to pre-empt a flood of climate refugees.
MACRON MOVES: New French leader makes climate vows
9 May 2017
France's new centrist president Emmanuel Macron supports a coal phase-out by 2022, a carbon price rise and trade sanctions on polluting countries.
Hamburg is taking a half-billion-dollar climate bet
9 May 2017
The German shipping city of Hamburg will spend nearly $US600 million over 30 years in a bid to hold back the rising sea.
Put cities, not countries, in charge of climate change
9 May 2017
Climate change can't be left to dysfunctional nation states to tackle – but as Oslo and Seoul have shown, metropolitan centres can rise to the challenge.
Chicago posts EPA’s deleted climate change info
9 May 2017
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has responsed to the Trump administration pulling down its website detailing information about climate change by putting up his own.
Bonn talks pave the road for Paris Agreement
8 May 2017
Work on the rules that will drive the Paris Agreement is under way.
Directionless, US climate teams head to Bonn
8 May 2017
As US president DonaldTrump mulls over leaving the Paris agreement, American officials fly in to important climate talks with no clear mandate.
GET LOST: Beijing pulls 180,000 polluting vehicles
8 May 2017
Beijing removed 180,000 old and polluting vehicles from its roads in the first four months of 2017.
Negative emissions tech might be the answer
8 May 2017
As CO2 levels rise, controversial techniques including carbon capture and storage, enhanced weathering and reforestation might be solutions.
Peru paves way for major polluter
8 May 2017
Proposals to raise Peru's legal limits of sulfur dioxide by more than 12 times have been linked directly to the sale of a US-owned smelter in the Andes.
China wants fish, so Africa goes hungry
5 May 2017
Of all the stresses that humans have inflicted on the world’s oceans, including pollution and global warming, industrial fishing ranks high.
Brazil throws new light on wildlife problem
5 May 2017
Artificial lighting is spreading across Brazil (and many other counries), with unknown effects on wildlife.
Canberra swimming against the tide on Westpac call
4 May 2017
The Australian government’s strident criticism of Westpac for not financing the Adani Carmichael coal mine is out of step with the economics.
New crack raises fears of major Antarctic ice breakaway
4 May 2017
Another branch has appeared in a huge crack on one of Antarctica’s largest ice shelves, and scientists fear a huge chunk will break away.
Humans better at rapid change than we think
4 May 2017
A new study provides evidence that humans are capable of radically altering the world around us, and offers hope in the face of climate change.
Most Americans keen on carbon price
4 May 2017
Most Americans want a price on carbon, according to new research.
Solar could provide 30% of Australia’s power needs by 2030
4 May 2017
Solar photovoltaics could provide 30 per cent of Australia’s electricity needs by 2030.
Atlanta commits to 100% renewables
4 May 2017
Atlanta lawmakers have passed a resolution to pursue 100 per cent renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, to power the city by 2035.
High ground is becoming hot property
2 May 2017
Climate change may now be a part of the gentrification story in Miami real estate.
Big banks distance themselves from Adani mine
1 May 2017
Australia’s big four banks have ruled out funding or withdrawn from Adani’s Queensland coal project, after Westpac said it would not back opening up new coalmining regions.
Paris Agreement not fair to US, says Trump
1 May 2017
President Trump has complained that the United States was being unfairly treated in the Paris Climate Agreement and said he would announce a decision in about two weeks on whether Washington would remain in the accord.
PEOPLE POWER: Angry America stages march against Trump
1 May 2017
The People’s Climate March, timed to Trump’s 100th day as president, came amid a flurry of pro-fossil-fuel policy actions from the White House.
Arctic is unravelling, says major new report
1 May 2017
The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, suggests a major assessment of the region.
Households key to Australia’s energy transition
1 May 2017
Australia’s households and small businesses will play a critical role in the switch to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Put your mattress to bed and help save the planet
28 Apr 2017
A mattress-recycling scheme in Auckland could divert more than 8000 tonnes of waste a year and save $14.5 million.
American climate refugees likely to flee inland
28 Apr 2017
The population of inland American cities will alter drastically if predictions of dramatic sea level rises by 2100 are correct, a new report suggests.
Bangladesh ... a climate tragedy waiting to happen
28 Apr 2017
A three-foot rise in sea level would submerge almost 20 per cent of Bangladesh and displace more than 30 million people - and the actual rise by 2100 could be significantly more.
Arctic melt increases fears of sea level rise
27 Apr 2017
Global sea level rise could happen at nearly twice the rate previously projected by the UN, according to a new report.
DRY DAYS: Good news for termites ... bad news for us
27 Apr 2017
In what may be good news only for cactus, termites and drought-resistant grasses, subtropical dry areas are going to expand over large parts of the Earth as the climate warms.
Ignore Trump, Bloomberg tells world leaders
26 Apr 2017
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged world leaders not to follow Donald Trump’s lead on climate change, and declared his own intention to stave off the “tragedy” that would be the collapse of the Paris climate deal.
Vulnerable nations call on G20 to end subsidies
26 Apr 2017
Ministers from countries on the front line of climate change have urged rich nations to stop pouring money into the coal, oil and gas industries.
One old rock has development of solar cells on a roll
26 Apr 2017
After a 170-year delay, the discovery of a strange, metallic-looking rock found in the Ural Mountains in Russia in 1839 has ignited a global technology race for a cheaper, more efficient solar cell.
Green Investment Bank sale a disaster, say critics
21 Apr 2017
The UK government’s decision to sell the Green Investment Bank to Australian bank Macquarie for £2.3bn has been attacked by critics including the Liberal Democrats and Greenpeace as “politically dubious” and a “disaster.
China gets tough on shipping emissions
21 Apr 2017
Every year, more than 60 per cent of the world’s seaborne cargoes and 30 per cent of the world’s shipping containers pass through China’s ports, creating an air pollution problem Beijing is now trying to solve.
Trump's people postpone Paris decision
21 Apr 2017
Trump administration officials have postponed a meeting scheduled for this week to discuss the US government’s position on the Paris climate change agreement.
Brazil MPs bid to cut protection for huge forest
20 Apr 2017
A committee of Brazil’s Congress has approved proposals to roll back protections on 1.1 million hectares of forest and national park.
CLOSE OF PLAY: Cricket is facing a climate crisis
20 Apr 2017
From the ochre-coloured Australian outback to the windswept Scottish coast, cricket is defined almost entirely by the weather conditions. If they change, so does the essence of the game.
22,000 years of history goes down the drain
20 Apr 2017
A freezer malfunction at a university has melted part of the world’s largest collection of ice cores from the Canadian Arctic, reducing some of the ancient ice into puddles.
Stop swooning over Justin Trudeau ... he's a disaster
19 Apr 2017
Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he’s not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change, says climate activist Bill McKibben.
DEATH METAL: Nickel had role in our worst mass extinction
19 Apr 2017
Around 250 million years ago, life on Earth nearly came to an end, in a mass extinction between the Permian and Triassic periods known as the Great Dying.
ON THE MARCH: Why angry scientists are fighting back
18 Apr 2017
Next Saturday, in Washington, and in hundreds of rallies around the world (including New Zealand), scientists and their supporters will stage what is likely to be the largest gathering of its kind in history.
White House showdown looms on Paris Agreement
18 Apr 2017
President Trump's most senior advisers will huddle this week to resolve long-simmering tensions over whether the United States should stay in the Paris climate change agreement.
Turnbull tells Adani native title won't stop mine
13 Apr 2017
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has assured the Indian billionaire hoping to build Australia’s largest coal mine in Queensland that native title issues will not stop the $16 billion project.
‘Off like a rocket’: Battery rebate prompts massive rooftop power surge
Today 11:00am
The federal government’s home battery rebate has proved so popular it is adding the equivalent to South Australia’s big battery to the grid every 8.7 days.
Ørsted shares at all-time low after Trump halts work on US windfarm
Wed 27 Aug 2025
Shares drop by 17% after stop-work order on $1.5bn project off Rhode Island, which was 80% complete.
China's carbon market to introduce absolute emissions caps from 2027
Wed 27 Aug 2025
China will tighten its carbon trading market by introducing absolute emissions caps in some industries for the first time starting by 2027.
Apple Watch not a 'CO2-neutral product,' German court finds
Today 11:00am
Apple can no longer advertise its Apple Watch as a "CO2-neutral product" in Germany, following a court ruling on Tuesday that upheld a complaint from environmentalists, finding that the U.S. tech company had misled consumers.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
20 Aug 2025
When climate change undermines the climate plan.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
Singapore seals carbon credit deal with Thailand, its first South-east Asian partner
Today 11:00am
The agreement, the eighth for Singapore, helps both nations meet climate targets under the Paris Agreement, directing finance to Thai projects.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Is Africa about to see the solar energy boom it needs?
Today 11:00am
African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent.
Lessons from the Incas: How llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change
Today 11:00am
New research suggests solutions may lie in environmental knowledge that the Incas and their predecessors developed centuries ago.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
