International: All stories
Fossil fuel majors strut their stuff for Marrakech
8 Nov 2016
The oil industry has been in damage limitation mode ahead of this week’s climate change talks in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.
Australian unions call for 'just transition' from coal
8 Nov 2016
Australian unions have thrown their weight behind a transition away from coal-generated electricity, calling for a new statutory authority to manage a “just transition”, supporting workers and communities that rely on fossil fuel-related jobs.
Paris will not kill fossil fuels, says ex-Saudi oil chief
8 Nov 2016
The oil and gas industry will thrive despite the UN’s new greenhouse gas slashing pact, says former Saudi oil chief and lead climate negotiator Ali Al-Naimi.
Rio's famed beaches take battering from storm surge
8 Nov 2016
Scientists in Rio de Janeiro have warned that the city’s sea defences might not be able to cope with the effects of climate change after a record storm surge swamped beaches, dumping hundreds of tonnes of sand across roads and buildings.
China pledges 18% cut in carbon emissions
7 Nov 2016
China has issued a new climate plan targeting an 18 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2020 compared with 2015 levels.
Canada's official buildings to go green by 2025
7 Nov 2016
The Canadian federal government has pledged to run all its operations on renewable energy by 2025, says environment minister Catherine McKenna.
What nations need to achieve in Marrakech
4 Nov 2016
The past 12 months have been a relatively good year for global climate policy. Next week, the world’s countries meet in Marrakech to follow up on the gains made at Paris last year and to try to reconcile these two facts.
UK government loses air pollution court case
4 Nov 2016
Environmental campaigners in the United Kingdom have won a High Court legal battle over the government’s failure to tackle air pollution and meet European standards.
US election outcome likely to dominate Marrakech summit
3 Nov 2016
After a year of celebrating the Paris climate agreement, the hangover is about to kick in for the 195 countries who helped to deliver the deal last December.
Climate on the ballot in Washington and Florida
3 Nov 2016
As US election day nears, voters in two states will weigh in on climate-related ballot measures that could reverberate throughout the country.
Climate champion Carney to stay at Bank of England
2 Nov 2016
Canadian banker Mark Carney's climate risk warnings have won him praise from campaigners, criticism from sceptics – but he’s with us for a while longer.
UNICEF: 300 million children breathe toxic air
2 Nov 2016
One in every seven children, 300 million, endure the world’s most toxic levels of outdoor air pollution – six or more times higher than international guidelines – and many die as a result, finds a new report.
Will US policy push fossil fuels or clean energy?
2 Nov 2016
The United States is blessed with many energy resources: huge fossil fuels reserves and substantial renewable energy potential, from offshore wind to geothermal power.
Why aren’t Washington greenies supporting a carbon tax?
1 Nov 2016
Legislation known as Initiative-732 would make Washington the first US state to have a carbon tax. The tax would be levied on refineries and utilities, who would then pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher gasoline, electricity and natural gas prices.
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.
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.
