International: All stories
DEAD MED: Deserts might spread as sea warms
1 Nov 2016
Global warming is on track to disrupt the Mediterranean region more than any droughts or heatwaves in the past 10,000 years, turning parts of southern Europe into desert by the end of the century.
WANTED: Strategies to put climate change into reverse
1 Nov 2016
Cities that mimic forests, bricks made from converted carbon dioxide and highways lined with wind turbines powered by traffic. These are ideas for when the world’s focus can be turned from halting runaway climate change to actually reversing it.
STERN WORDS: We need negative emissions to avoid 2deg warming
31 Oct 2016
Top climate economist Lord Stern reflects on challenges and opportunities a decade after his seminal review into implications of a warming world.
World's largest marine park created in Ross Sea
31 Oct 2016
A landmark international agreement to create the world’s largest marine park in the Southern Ocean has been brokered in Australia, after five years of compromises and failed negotiations.
Skies darken over Iraq as Isis torches desert oil fields
31 Oct 2016
Even at the height of the day, the skies in many parts of northern Iraq are dark as Isis torches oil wells and oil-filled defensive trenches in its retreat.
Is permafrost giving up deadly diseases?
31 Oct 2016
Scientists are witnessing the theoretical turning into reality: infectious microbes emerging from a deep freeze.
PHEW! Australia is getting hotter and dryer
28 Oct 2016
Australia is heating up and drying out as the country experiences more extreme and prolonged heat events, according to a new report.
Japan backs Apia climate change centre
28 Oct 2016
A Pacific Climate Change Centre, jointly funded by the Governments of Japan and Samoa as well as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, will be based in Apia.
World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020
28 Oct 2016
The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
Is this the year governments protect Antarctic seas?
28 Oct 2016
The odds world governments will finally agree to establish marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean are looking better than ever.
EU drops law to limit cancer-linked chemical in food
28 Oct 2016
The European Commission has dropped plans to legally limit a pervasive but naturally occurring chemical found in food, that is linked to cancer, just days after lobbying by industry.
Coal seam gas emissions Australia’s new carbon bomb
27 Oct 2016
Australia could be underestimating its annual greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to the output of the nation’s entire transport sector, a new report says.
Coal won’t solve poverty, but it might save PM's career
27 Oct 2016
As the world’s carbon emissions passed a critical threshold, and Australia’s Coalition government re-boots plans to limit the activities of environmental activists, another new study has been released that demolishes claims by fossil fuel proponents that coal will end poverty.
Dreaded polar vortex might be shifting
27 Oct 2016
A the Arctic wind pattern migrates toward Europe it could allow frigid air to descend upon the US.
Backyard battery recycling biggest chemical polluter
26 Oct 2016
The backyard recycling of lead-acid car batteries is the number one source of chemical pollution in the world’s poorer nations and leads to millions of years of healthy life being lost, according to a new report.
Britain becomes nuclear showroom to the world
26 Oct 2016
The UK has laid out a welcome mat for any nuclear operators in the world who want to showcase their latest designs in Britain − the one exception being the Russian state company Rosatom.
Pope's climate message falls flat in America, says report
26 Oct 2016
Pope Francis' landmark statement on climate change and his call for more work on the issue failed to sway conservative American Catholics, according to a new study.
Antarctic glacier biggest threat for rising sea levels
25 Oct 2016
US and British science agencies have announced a multimillion-dollar research mission to study an enormous and exceedingly remote Antarctic glacier, one that they say could hold the potential for major sea level rise before the end of the century.
The world meets in Quito to discuss the future of cities
25 Oct 2016
As the global population grows from seven billion to nearly 10 billion by 2050, we will need to build the equivalent of a city of one million people every five days to house them.
UN approves urgent global warming report
21 Oct 2016
Top climate scientists have just under two years to deliver assessment of dangers and avoiding strategies for warming of 1.5deg.
UN tells Bangladesh to halt coal plant
21 Oct 2016
The UN’s world heritage body has made an urgent intervention to stop the construction of a coal power station in Bangladesh.
Why has climate been ignored in US election debates?
21 Oct 2016
Climate change has been the elephant in the room during the three US presidential debates. Ignoring this issue would be more understandable if this metaphorical pachyderm weren’t about to rampage through the lives of Americans, causing upheaval on a scale not seen since the start of human civilization.
Emissions fall as EU cuts surplus carbon quotas
20 Oct 2016
Greenhouse gas emissions from the main sectors covered by the European carbon market fell between 2014 and 2015, according to the European Environment Agency.
Why is the US Green Party so irrelevant?
20 Oct 2016
Many Americans value environmental protection and want to see more of it.
Divestment not the best approach, says AMP
19 Oct 2016
One of Australia's biggest investment companies, AMP Capital, says dumping fossil fuel assets is not the answer to climate change, despite acknowledging the significant financial risks associated with rising global temperatures.
Oslo to reduce emissions by 50% in four years
19 Oct 2016
Norwegian capital Oslo has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent compared to 1990 in four years – which would be the fastest change a city has ever had.
Millions more facing extreme poverty by 2030
19 Oct 2016
Up to 122 million more people worldwide could be living in extreme poverty by 2030 as a result of climate change and its impacts on small-scale farmers’ incomes, a major UN report warns.
What if nature had the protections of a person?
19 Oct 2016
The world has taken notice of a radical approach taken by New Zealand in 2014 when it adopted the Te Urewera Act which granted an 821-square-mile forest the legal status of a person.
It's been another hot one
18 Oct 2016
September set a record with temperatures 1.6deg above normal, besting the previous mark set in September 2014. It’s the latest in a run of months — and years — where freakish global warmth has become the norm.
Why poorer suburbs are more at risk in warming cities
18 Oct 2016
Australian cities are getting hotter. But some areas and some residents of cities are more exposed to heat than others.
Climate change could crunch Auckland housing market
17 Oct 2016
Auckland’s soaring house prices could be brought down to earth by climate change, the insurance industry is warning.
EU parliament backs carbon market reform
17 Oct 2016
The industry committee of the European Parliament has voted 45 to 13 in favour of a compromise for reforming the EU’s carbon market.
Global ‘bright spots’ offer climate change hope
17 Oct 2016
We are constantly bombarded with bad news about climate change and the state of the planet – to the point where problems can seem so great that we feel powerless to do anything about them.
Comet collision could have caused rapid carbon rise
17 Oct 2016
Evidence collected along the New Jersey coastline suggests that the collision of a comet or other extraterrestrial body 55 million years ago coincided with an intense warming period that is the closest comparison to today’s climate change.
Australian to head Green Climate Fund
14 Oct 2016
The job of steering the world’s major climate finance fund through its troubled toddler phase has been given to an Australian.
The best idea is not to put up new buildings
14 Oct 2016
Making heritage buildings sustainable is just as important as preserving their history – and they can offer energy-efficiency lessons of their own.
What do you think you're doing, UN asks Australia
13 Oct 2016
Australia is facing renewed international pressure to explain what it is doing to tackle climate change, with a UN review finding its emissions continue to soar and several countries calling for clarity about what it will do after 2020.
Industry calls for support in coolant crisis
13 Oct 2016
Financial support and technology transfer are critical to tackling a climate timebomb in the chemical coolants sector.
Al Gore rides to Clinton's rescue on climate change
13 Oct 2016
Retired Democratic warhorse Al Gore was trotted out at a rally in Miami with Hillary Clinton to highlight an issue he has long championed — combating climate change.
State lays out cost-neutral path to renewables
13 Oct 2016
The panel appointed by the Queensland government to canvass options for its renewable energy target has outlined three cost-neutral pathways for the state to achieve 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
Climate impacts double number of forest fires
13 Oct 2016
Climate change has already doubled the number of forest fires in the western US since the 1980s − and it is a trend that will continue to increase, according to new research.
Australian firms accept role of carbon prices
12 Oct 2016
Most major Australian companies are factoring carbon prices into their budgets, despite the fact the country no longer has a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.
Why renters are being left out in the cold
12 Oct 2016
Australia has found that improving energy efficiency is not an option for a significant number of people – renters.
Queensland fast-tracks Carmichael coal mine
11 Oct 2016
The Queensland government has declared the massive Carmichael coal mine and port proposed for the state’s Galilee Basin as “critical infrastructure”, in an effort to fast-track its development.
Paris goals at risk from new coal schemes
11 Oct 2016
Slowing down construction of coal-fired power stations will be vital to hit globally agreed climate change goals, says World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
Climate change worsens Brazil’s drought
11 Oct 2016
A recently published study suggests that the droughts which have traditionally affected Brazil's semi-arid northeast are being worsened by the effects of climate change.
WANTED: $90 trillion to fix what's wrong
10 Oct 2016
A gigantic overhaul of the world’s buildings, public transport and energy infrastructure costing trillions of dollars is required if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.
What’s sugar got to do with it?
10 Oct 2016
Why do we think that climate sceptics are irrational? A major reason is that almost none of them have any genuine expertise in climate science (most have no scientific expertise at all), yet they’re confident that they know better than the scientists.
Climate treaty races toward hazy future
7 Oct 2016
With a speed almost unknown in the annals of diplomacy, the Paris Agreement on climate change is ready to come into force a bare 11 months after it was reached on December 12 last year.
Australia lags as Paris deal swings into action
7 Oct 2016
Australia is not alone in having not yet ratified the Paris Agreement. When all the EU member states have formally joined it will leave Chile, Israel, Japan, Turkey and Australia as the only OECD members on the outer.
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.
Climate scientists and republican lawyers are taking aim at Big Tech’s emissions
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Technology companies have long been one of the biggest investors in clean energy, but new accounting rules could upend that.
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.
'Not up for discussion': Brussels rejects Washington's pressure on climate rules
Mon 13 Oct 2025
In response to US demands to roll back the EU's environmental legislation, the European Commission defended its autonomous power to adopt laws.
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
Mon 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.
UN agency says CO2 levels hit record high last year, causing more extreme weather
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilisation and “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather.
