International: All stories
China will 'far surpass' 2020 climate target
25 Feb 2016
China’s lead climate envoy has hinted the country could exceed planned greenhouse gas cuts for 2020 by up to 10 per cent, as the economy slows and coal use falls.
Your rubbish bin is an energy factory
25 Feb 2016
There's energy in your rubbish bin. A large part of it is renewable. And it works even when there is no wind or sun.
Indian city to make rooftop solar mandatory
25 Feb 2016
An Indian city is planning on becoming the second municipality to make rooftop solar mandatory on all buildings.
AGL boss: Get out of the 'emissions business'
24 Feb 2016
The boss of Australia’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases says his company needs to be out of the “CO2 emissions business” regardless of what they think of the science of climate change, simply to manage the financial risk.
You talk too much, market expert tells Canberra
24 Feb 2016
The Australian Government could restore certainty to the market if it did a better job of selling its climate change policy.
China finds capacity biggest trading hurdle
24 Feb 2016
Capacity is the biggest issue holding back the development of China’s national emissions trading market, says a new report.
Paris pact promotes but complicates carbon trading
24 Feb 2016
One out of every six molecules of climate pollution released to the atmosphere next year will be regulated under a cap-and-trade system, according a new global estimate that highlights the remarkable ongoing growth in carbon markets around the world.
US greenhouse gas emissions rise - a little
24 Feb 2016
United States greenhouse gas emissions increased by less than 1 per cent in 2014, according to new Environmental Protection Agency data.
Green investment bank excused green projects
24 Feb 2016
The bank set up by the British government to to fund green infrastructure and cited frequently by Prime Minister David Cameron as evidence of the UK’s leadership on climate change will no longer be required by law to invest in green schemes.
California spends millions on e-car stations
24 Feb 2016
Nearly $9 million in new funding has awarded by the California Energy Commission to four companies to build electric vehicle fast-charging stations along major routes in the state.
China to close more than 1000 coal mines in 2016
23 Feb 2016
China will aim to close more than 1000 coal mines over this year, with a total production capacity of 60 million tonnes, as part of its plans to tackle a price-sapping supply glut in the sector.
Why oil demand will likely peak by 2030
23 Feb 2016
Will global oil demand peak by 2030? Is peak oil demand the new peak oil supply? Many trends now point in the direction of this remarkable possibility.
Beijing raises 'red alert' threshold
23 Feb 2016
Beijing is to raise the thresholds for issuing its highest air pollution warnings, two months after acrid smog triggered the city’s first ever “red alert”.
Americans are driving more than ever
23 Feb 2016
Americans drove more miles than ever before in 2015, a departure from totals that have stayed mostly flat since 2004.
Fossil fuel emissions behind record spring heat
23 Feb 2016
Scientists say it is highly likely greenhouse gas emissions are behind Australia’s run of three hottest springs on record - 2014, 2015 and 2013.
Republicans' strategy: just ban the words 'climate change'
22 Feb 2016
Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott has forbidden employees from using terms like “climate change,” “global warming” or “sea-level rise”.
We just had the hottest January ever recorded
22 Feb 2016
January was the globe's most unusually warm month ever recorded, and the past three months have been the most unusually warm three-month period on record, says NASA.
Apple launches $1.5b green bond
22 Feb 2016
Apple has issued US$1.5 billion worth of green bonds to raise money for climate-friendly initiatives.
Statoil to invest $200m in renewable energy
22 Feb 2016
Norway’s biggest oil and gas producer Statoil will invest as much as US$200 million in renewable energy over four to seven years as part its plan to diversify the company’s portfolio.
Europe places energy bets on natural gas
22 Feb 2016
The future of Europe’s energy supply is to rely heavily on natural gas for the coming two decades and beyond, according to a new strategy set out by the European commission.
Figueres to leave UN climate change role
22 Feb 2016
Christiana Figueres will step down in July after six years at the helm of the UN’s top climate body.
Blame climate for stirring up ancient political turmoil
15 Feb 2016
Volcanic eruptions that triggered climatic extremes could have heralded deadly plague and famine in Europe and undermined the Roman empire.
Worldwire ...
15 Feb 2016
SOME STATES FORGING AHEAD WITH EMISSIONS PLANS: Not all states are suspending work on the Clean Power Plan despite the Supreme Court's bombshell decision last week to put a temporary hold on the tight new rules that are at the heart of the Obama administration's climate policies.
Australia backs liveable cities with $250m boost
15 Feb 2016
Australia's better cities commitment is being given a boost with a $250 million programme which will help to provide affordable energy efficient housing to low income earners.
Senate orders carbon risk disclosure probe
9 Feb 2016
Australia’s Senate has ordered an inquiry into carbon risk disclosure, following on the heels of a Financial Stability Board task force on the issue.
CSIRO boss' logic could waste billions in taxes
9 Feb 2016
CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall offered the following justification for his decision to cut 110 jobs from the agency’s climate science staff: "We have spent probably a decade trying to answer the question 'is the climate changing?' After the Paris climate summit that question has been answered. The next question now is what do we do about it? The people that were so brilliant at measuring and modelling climate change might not be the right people to figure out how to adapt to it."
Worldwire ...
9 Feb 2016
OBAMA PROPOSES OIL TAX TO PAY FOR TRANSPORT: President Obama’s proposal to impose a $10 tax on every barrel of oil and spend the money on advances in transportation is one of the most comprehensive attempts yet to address the climate impacts of moving people and freight from place to place.
Canberra pulls plug on emissions funding
2 Feb 2016
Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund is expected to run out of money by the end of the year, after the Government said it won’t put in any more.
Worldwire
2 Feb 2016
Copenhagen’s mayor has announced plans to divest the city’s 6.9bn kroner ($NZA1.5b)) investment fund of all holdings in coal, oil and gas.
Sydney makes a plan to win the climate war
25 Jan 2016
Sydney has announced a series of measures to help the city to cope with soaring temperatures, worsening storms and rising sea levels.
What is a garden city – and why is money being spent on building them?
25 Jan 2016
The British government is investing more than £300m ($NZ659m) in building what Chancellor of the Excheque George Osborne has described as the first “proper” garden city in nearly a century, near Ebbsfleet, Kent.
Climate-conscious cities take lessons from New York
25 Jan 2016
Up to two-thirds of the world’s population – some six billion people – may live in cities by 2050.
Out-of-touch traffic modelling drives policy madness
25 Jan 2016
According to all the data, urban car use has peaked, but official traffic modelling forecasts a remarkable reversal.
Worldwire
25 Jan 2016
CITIES FIND WAYS TO NUDGE PEOPLE OUT OF CARS: Home to more than half of the planet’s seven billion people and a large portion of its 1.2 billion cars, cities face a huge challenge as the world strives to meet the Paris climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 deg above pre-industrial levels.
Don't scare the horses, advises academic
18 Jan 2016
Fewer scare stories and an appeal to people’s better natures are the key to getting voters on-side over environmental issues, says a politics expert.
America's politics of climate unlikely to change
18 Jan 2016
In an American lection year, with two parties dug in on opposite sides of the climate issue, perhaps only extreme weather will roil the debate.
The current economic system is looking pretty tired
18 Jan 2016
It’s increasingly clear that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way humans run the world. There are many contradictions experienced daily that prove this: the widening social gaps between rich and poor, the paradox of obesity next to starvation, and the ongoing destruction of the planet for short-term private profit.
Worldwire
18 Jan 2016
BEIJING TO SHUT POLLUTING FIRMS: Beijing will close 2500 small polluting firms this year in its latest effort to combat pollution, state news agency Xinhua reported.
COMMENT: Great, now all we need is a plan
15 Dec 2015
By editor ADELIA HALLETT.- Two months ago, Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association chief Kim Campbell let fly on climate change.
NZ leads charge for world carbon market
15 Dec 2015
Tentative steps have been made toward the development of an international carbon market.
Treaty emerges from battle of the verbs
15 Dec 2015
Under the Paris Agreement there should be no net addition of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere sometime in the second half of this century.
What we can learn from the rise and fall of climate and civilizations
15 Dec 2015
This year will likely be the hottest on record, beating the previous record set only in 2014. It is also likely to be the first year the global average temperature reaches 1deg above pre-industrial temperatures (measured from 1880-1899).
US town faces watery end from rising sea
15 Dec 2015
The United States, a strenuous doubter of the facts of climate change, will lose an entire town to rising sea level within the next century.
Meet the fossil fuel firms paying for Paris
15 Dec 2015
In their recent book Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction, Christopher Wright and Daniel Nyberg argue that “the reputation risk that flows from an association with greenhouse gas pollution has become increasingly relevant for corporations amid growing public awareness of climate change”.
Climate and international laws trap islanders
7 Dec 2015
People on low-lying islands threatened by climate-related disasters are barred from seeking sanctuary because international laws say they are classed as economic migrants.
Most Kiribati households are mulling migration
7 Dec 2015
The Paris climate summit came too late for Ioane Teitiota from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, who made history when his case for asylum in New Zealand was rejected in September.
Hansen: Why global ‘carbon fee’ system will work
7 Dec 2015
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen has called for a global “carbon fee” in which fossil fuels are taxed when they are produced or imported, rather than when they are consumed.
What in the world's going on ...
7 Dec 2015
* Bloomberg to head global taskforce on climate change * Carney: Businesses should aim for net zero emissions * Four cities lead world on climate action * New York aims for vast e-car fleet * More than $3.4 trillion in assets vow to divest * Germany backs island nations’ bid for 1.5deg
UN report counts human cost of changing climate
30 Nov 2015
A new study informs delegates to the Paris summit that extreme weather in the past two decades has claimed well over half a million lives and cost trillions of dollars.
What in the world's going on ...
30 Nov 2015
* Christiana Figueres: the woman whose job it is to save the world * Gates to launch clean energy project in Paris * Unilever vows to go 'carbon positive' by 2030 * Malaysia targets cut in last-minute pledge * Key dates in fight to save world from climate change
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.
