International: All stories
Could baby steps be best climate strategy?
12 May 2016
Could baby steps be the best way to make international progress on slashing greenhouse gas emissions instead of trying to strike a bold and grand bargain among world powers?
NOWHERE TO HIDE: Eyes in the sky would map all emissions
11 May 2016
The world’s space agencies are calling for a new generation of satellites that would be precise enough to map greenhouse gas emissions from individual nations.
Banks ignoring climate risk face credit downgrade
11 May 2016
Banks face credit rating downgrade if they fail to address risks associated with climate change, Standard&Poors has warned.
How your garden could help to stop city flooding
11 May 2016
Urban flooding represents the most common yet severe environmental threat to cities and towns worldwide.
Top palm oil producer sues green group
11 May 2016
One of the world’s largest palm oil producers is suing the green body that suspended its sustainability certification last month because of allegations it had deforested Indonesian rainforests.
Australia delays ETS report till after election
10 May 2016
The release of the results of a review into whether Australia should have an emissions trading scheme is being delayed until after that country’s general election in July, prompting suggestions of political interference.
Change to clean energy means massive social change
10 May 2016
Global climate change, driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases, is already affecting the planet, with more heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods, and accelerating sea-level rise.
Philippines probes oil companies over climate change
10 May 2016
Can Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP be held accountable for the vulnerable communities most affected by climate change? It’s a question a legal case in the Philippines could answer.
Exxon scrambles to contain climate crusade
10 May 2016
A green campaign to make the company pay for climate change is besieging the oil industry and its conservative allies.
Shanghai to allow use of surplus permits
10 May 2016
The Shanghai carbon market, one of China's pilot emissions trading schemes, will allow participants to use surplus permits from the past three years of trading to comply with emissions targets over 2016-2018.
Tourism firms urge Canberra to tackle climate change
10 May 2016
Tourism operators have broken their silence about the worst crisis ever faced by the Great Barrier Reef, with more than 170 businesses and individuals pleading with the Australian government to take urgent action to tackle climate change and ensure the reef survives.
CLIMATE REFUGEES: G20 group wants clarification
9 May 2016
A G20 group is pushing for urgent clarification of the status of climate change refugees.
LOST ISLANDS OF THE SOLOMONS: Finally, scientists have the evidence
9 May 2016
At least five reef islands in the Solomon Islands have been lost completely to sea-level rise and coastal erosion, and a further six islands have been severely eroded.
Climate confusion creeps into Trump camp
9 May 2016
Perhaps you think nothing else could surprise you in the run-up to this year’s US presidential election, with Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate. You could be wrong.
Canberra spends $500m in Direct Action auctions
9 May 2016
The Australian Government has funded projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the tune of half-a-billion dollars in the latest round of the Direct Action auctions.
Rush for mega-mergers puts food security at risk
9 May 2016
The global agrochemical and seed industry is undergoing profound upheaval, with a spate of mergers and attempted mergers consolidating the sector and raising concerns about the future of the food system.
NUT CASE: Thirsty California turns on its most famous crop
6 May 2016
When California entered the fourth year of drought, everyone wanted to know what had gone wrong.
Enviro scorecard shows Australia again in decline
6 May 2016
After some unusually wet years, Australia's landscape and ecosystems have once again returned to poorer conditions that were last experienced during the Millennium Drought.
Green bonds market to hit record $70bn in 2016
6 May 2016
The global green bonds market will hit a record $US70 billion this year, according to an estimate from Moody’s Investors Services.
London's dirty mayoral fight sidelines green policies
6 May 2016
The London Mayoral campaign has been divisive and brutish, and admirable green policies risk becoming collateral damage.
Limiting oil exploration makes financial sense
6 May 2016
Limiting oil exploration is not just good for the climate, it is good for investors. That is the conclusion of analysis from Carbon Tracker ahead of key shareholder votes at ExxonMobil and Chevron AGMs this month.
Norwegian to be UN environment chief
6 May 2016
Erik Solheim of Norway is set to be named the new Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
How Trump's election would derail Paris cimate deal
5 May 2016
The election of Donald Trump would derail the landmark agreement on climate change reached in Paris last December, the architect of the accord has warned.
Dead zones are sapping the seas of oxygen
5 May 2016
Scientists in the US have identified a new hazard in a world in which the climates change and the oceans warm: measurable stretches of the seas could become sapped of oxygen.
There's more than one way to fund urban infrastructure
5 May 2016
With the Australian federal government aiming to kick-start investment in urban infrastructure, pledging $50 million of public money in the 2016 budget to look at alternative financing mechanisms, attention is turning to the idea of “land value capture” as a means to attract the necessary funds.
EU lawmakers want to increase free carbon credits
5 May 2016
The largest political group in the European Parliament says it wants a greater proportion of EU carbon permits to be handed out free to industry from 2020.
Germany wants EU minimum carbon price
5 May 2016
Germany is proposing a minimum price on European carbon emissions, according to a draft document outlining the nation’s energy and climate policy through to 2050.
Price water or prepare for poorer planet, says World Bank
5 May 2016
The future will be thirsty unless governments place a price on water. That’s the stark warning in a World Bank report urging lawmakers to make water conservation a national and international priority.
It's time to turn up the heat on those wrecking the planet
4 May 2016
An interesting question is, what are you waiting for? Global warming is the biggest problem we’ve ever faced as a civilisation — certainly you want to act to slow it down, but perhaps you’ve been waiting for just the right moment.
Resettling the first American climate refugees
4 May 2016
Facing the threat of climate-related flooding, residents of Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles received this year a first-of-its-kind $48 million grant from the federal government to resettle.
Mexican diplomat next UN climate chief
4 May 2016
The UN has selected Patricia Espinosa as the next head of its climate change body. Mexico’s ambassador to Germany, she will take over from Christiana Figueres when she leaves on July 6, after two terms leading the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Top 500 investors score zero in risk poll
3 May 2016
Almost half of the world’s top 500 investors are failing to act on climate change - an increase of 6 per cent from 236 in 2014, according to a new report.
Australia's renewable energy target in doubt
3 May 2016
Fresh doubts have been raised about Australia's ability to meet the 2020 renewable energy target after a new analysis found that $10 billion of extra investment is needed in a market where lenders are wary because of changing regulations.
Judge backs the kids and tells US state to take climate action
3 May 2016
A judge’s ruling in a lawsuit filed by eight kids forces the state of Washington to get dead-serious about the threat of climate change.
Why cities need to add up the economic value of trees
2 May 2016
Your parents were wrong: money does grow on trees. Cities routinely rake in tens of millions of dollars from their urban forests annually in ways that are not always obvious.
EU court overturns carbon market free quotas
2 May 2016
Europe’s highest court has ruled that the European Commission’s calculation for handing out free carbon permits to industries was flawed, raising the prospect of higher costs for big energy users.
Barrier Reef bleaching made more likely by humans
2 May 2016
The hot water temperature that drove the devastating bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef this year was made 175 times more likely by human-caused climate change, and could be normal in just 18 years, according to preliminary findings by leading climate and coral reef scientists.
Is carbon farming the answer for clapped-out Australia?
29 Apr 2016
Australia's Clean Energy Regulator this week will hold the third emissions reduction fund auction and farmers across the nation will move to the forefront of efforts to rescue a “clapped-out” country.
Labor’s climate policy puts it back in the game
28 Apr 2016
The Australian Labor Party has announced the climate policy it will take to the federal election, including a return to carbon pricing under an emissions trading scheme.
Policy sounds good to us, say investors
28 Apr 2016
The Australian Labor Party’s new climate change policy has many of the elements investors are looking for, including market-based carbon pricing, says the Investor Group on Climate Change.
France ready to go it alone on carbon price floor
28 Apr 2016
France is preparing to introduce a floor price for carbon emissions, even if the rest of Europe does not follow.
Chevron lobbied for controversial legal TTIP right
28 Apr 2016
Chevron lobbied the EU to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decisions in a major US-EU trade deal because it would act as a deterrent against laws such as fracking bans.
Warming ocean is frying the Great Barrier Reef
28 Apr 2016
The Great Barrier Reef’s coral is dying, and it may never be the same again. Last month, as historically high ocean temperatures bathed the waters around the reef, the Australian Government raised the coral bleaching threat to the highest level possible.
Stanford rejects students' call to divest
28 Apr 2016
Stanford University has rejected a bid backed by students, faculty and alumni to divest the school's $22.2 billion endowment from holdings in oil and gas companies.
Buffett faces pressure to invest for the climate
27 Apr 2016
Thousands of bankers, investors, business journalists and just plain fans will flock to Omaha this weekend in a yearly pilgrimage to glean insight from the world's most famous investor: Warren Buffett. What they are unlikely to get is any guiding wisdom on climate change, even though the world's most famous climate scientist, James Hansen, will be among the attendees pushing for it.
Drought forecasting isn’t just about water
27 Apr 2016
The Millennium Drought taught Australians many lessons about living under extremely dry conditions – not just about how to conserve water, but also about human suffering.
Labor promises emissions trading scheme
27 Apr 2016
A Labor government in Australia would slash carbon emissions by about 50 per cent more than the Turnbull-led Coalition by 2030, introduce a broad-based emissions trading scheme, and block states like NSW and Queensland from expanding land clearing.
PARIS PACT: New Zealand's world, according to Bennett
26 Apr 2016
On Saturday in New York, Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on behalf of New Zealand.
PARIS PACT: What happens now
26 Apr 2016
The Paris Agreement enters into force 30 days after ratification by at least 55 countries and by countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions.
PARIS PACT: How should we compensate the poor countries?
26 Apr 2016
Written within the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is an article on “loss and damages,” the notion of providing aid to vulnerable countries that suffer damages from climate change.
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.
