International: All stories
Ratification critical test for Paris climate deal
12 Apr 2016
The recent fuss over who will sign the UN’s new climate pact is a distraction. The real test will come when countries have to pass the deal into domestic law
Israel to slash emissions by 26%
12 Apr 2016
Israel has announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent.
To help to curb climate change, stop wasting food
12 Apr 2016
Reducing food waste around the world would help to curb emissions of planet-warming gases, lessening some of the impacts of climate change such as more extreme weather and rising seas, scientists said in a new study.
How big oil spends millions on obstructing climate change
11 Apr 2016
ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, and three oil-industry groups together spend $115 million a year on advocacy designed to “obstruct” climate change policy, according to new estimates released by Influence Map, a British nonprofit research organisation.
Clouds could mean climate crisis worse than we think
11 Apr 2016
Climate change projections have vastly underestimated the role that clouds play, meaning future warming could be far worse than is currently projected, according to new research.
Pressure builds in EU on climate disclosure for investors
11 Apr 2016
Pressure is building on global regulators and the European Commission to “stress-test” portfolios of large institutional investors against long-term objectives to reduce climate change, in a move that could shift billions in investment away from fossil fuels.
Banks pledge $7bn for clean-energy investment
11 Apr 2016
A group of eight banks and investors pledged $7 billion to join Bank of America Corp’s initiative that plans to raise at least $10 billion for investments in clean energy and sustainable development.
Renewables grew at record pace last year
11 Apr 2016
Installations of renewable power plants registered their biggest leap on record last year as costs tumbled, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
China green bonds market to reach $46bn in 2016
8 Apr 2016
China’s green bonds market will reach $46 billion)this year, according to one of the country’s leading economists.
Panasonic unveils ‘smart town’ plan in Japan
8 Apr 2016
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic has launched the concept plans for a new ‘smart town’ that will be built in the city of Yokohama.
Kerry calls for climate action from private sector
8 Apr 2016
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on businesses to drop fossil fuels to combat climate change and boost global economic growth.
CSIRO cuts were about making money, emails show
7 Apr 2016
The CSIRO’s decision to sack about 120 climate scientists was motivated by an intention to move some of the organisation’s focus from science done in the public good, like climate change, toward science that makes money, internal emails suggest.
Weather men want to do CSIRO climate work
7 Apr 2016
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has offered to save climate research that CSIRO plans to axe under a plan that would see long-term programnes and dozens of jobs transfer between the two national science agencies.
Vancouver chases crown as world's greenest city crown
7 Apr 2016
Vancouver wants to be the greenest city in the world - and it’s given itself until 2020 to do it.
Belgium ends era with closure of last coal plant
7 Apr 2016
Belgium has losed its last coal power plant, marking the end of an era for a dirty fuel that accounted for 27 per cent of the country’s electricity generation in 1994. The EU country becomes the seventh to quit coal, joining Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta.
Countries show how to grow GDP while cutting emissions
7 Apr 2016
Twenty-one counties have expanded their economies while slashing carbon emissions over the past 15 years. Nearly all are European, bar the United States and Uzbekistan.
Climate change threat to public health worse than polio
7 Apr 2016
Climate change poses a serious danger to public health – worse than polio in some respects – and will strike especially hard at pregnant women, children, low-income people and communities of color, an authoritative US government report warns.
Hyundai green cars to take on Toyota
6 Apr 2016
Hyundai Motor Group, which comprises Hyundai and Kia, believes that launching a blitz of 26 green models through 2020 could place the Korean automaker among the leaders in the segment. Only Toyota would be larger in the electrified vehicle market if Hyundai's plan works.
Carbon capture needs massive investment
6 Apr 2016
Combating climate change successfully will require massive investments in technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide, new research has found.
Burma finds cheap coal hard to ignore
6 Apr 2016
Burma's new government is set to mushroom coal’s share of its energy mix, despite manifesto pledges to boost clean energy and cut air pollution.
Labour MP: Leaving overstayers here will help sinking islands
5 Apr 2016
New Zealand should let overstayers from Pacific countries which are becoming uninhabitable stay here, says Labour’s Pacific climate change spokesperson.
Meet the top 10 cleantech innovators
5 Apr 2016
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has announced its selection of 10 leading companies for energy technology and business transformation.
Orders for Tesla 3 surpass $10 billion
5 Apr 2016
If Elon Musk was delighted by the 115,000 orders for his Tesla Model 3 at launch, he should be positively jubilant with the latest figures which break the $10 billion mark.
Big names call for British Museum to drop BP
5 Apr 2016
Almost 100 prominent figures from the arts, science and politics are calling on the new director of the British Museum to drop BP as a commercial sponsor.
Hawaii utility sets 100% renewable target
5 Apr 2016
Hawaiian Electric hopes to have the Big Island reaching 100 per cent renewable energy by the year 2040, 10 years behind Molokai and Lânai and five years ahead of the statewide goal of 2045.
VW to spend big on cleaner trucks
5 Apr 2016
Volkswagen’s truck division will spend about half a billion euros by the end of the decade to enhance digital features of heavy-goods vehicles as truckmakers increase their focus on automation in road haulage.
Australia records hottest March ever
4 Apr 2016
March was the hottest on record in Australia, reaching 1.7degC above the long-term average, says the Bureau of Meteorology.
Tesla releases electric car for the masses
4 Apr 2016
Tesla Motors' unveiling of its new electric vehicle on Friday had the marks of an iPhone release - long lines of enthusiastic consumers, a glossy product and a CEO presenting in a simple black shirt.
New coal project will fall short on jobs promise
4 Apr 2016
A contentious coal project will generate less than a fifth of the jobs the mining company first claimed when seeking approval from the Queensland government, the state land court has heard.
Mexico City orders cars off the street
4 Apr 2016
The Mexico City government has ordered all cars to stay off the city's roads for one day a week in response the capital’s severe air-quality crisis.
US and China agree to sign Paris climate accord
1 Apr 2016
The United States and China will sign the Paris climate change agreement in New York on April 22, a move that officials hope will help the accord enter into force this year.
PNG logs first official climate plan under Paris pact
1 Apr 2016
The United Nations has launched a new website to track national climate action plans as part of the Paris Agreement.
Rapid decline of coal use leads to drop in UK emissions
1 Apr 2016
Plummeting coal use in 2015 led to a fall of 4% in the UK’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to government energy statistics published on Thursday. Coal is now burning at its lowest level in at least 150 years.
Top US attorneys step up probe into oil major ‘fraud’
1 Apr 2016
US oil and gas majors face investigation from 17 attorney generals into claims they misled the public over the impacts of climate change.
Hundreds of UK churches set to go green
1 Apr 2016
More than 400 churches in the United Kingdom plan to switch to clean energy providers for their light and heat, shifting spending of $1.4 million to renewables from fossil fuels.
Nevada plant first with solar-geothermal mix
1 Apr 2016
Nevada is home to the world's first hybrid power plant that combines geothermal energy with two different types of solar power.
Does it help when companies track carbon emissions?
31 Mar 2016
Voluntary greenhouse gas accounting has become common in the private sector, but is it helping?
Storing carbon could help to meet climate goals
31 Mar 2016
Australia's agricultural lands help to feed about 60 million people worldwide, and also support tens of thousands of farmers as well as rural communities and industries.
Tesla might have to fight courts for direct sales
31 Mar 2016
Tesla Motors hopes to capture mainstream auto buyers with its Model 3, an electric car it plans to unveil this week at a price about the same as the average gasoline-powered vehicle, but it might need a federal court ruling to succeed.
Arctic melt hits another record low
31 Mar 2016
The amount of ice in the Arctic during the depths of winter's freeze hit record lows for the second consecutive year, escalating concerns that sea ice is melting at an alarming rate.
Aussie offices race to go green
30 Mar 2016
More than three million square metres of Australia’s office space is officially green.
New-energy investments reach major milesone
30 Mar 2016
Coal and gas-fired electricity generation last year drew less than half the record investment made in solar, wind and other renewables capacity - one of several important firsts for green energy recently announced in a United Nations-backed report.
Science says US is drilling for earthquakes
30 Mar 2016
Scientists are increasingly confident about the link between earthquakes and oil and gas production, yet regulators are slow to react
European mayors urge clampdown on diesel emissions
30 Mar 2016
The mayors of 20 European cities including Madrid, Paris and Copenhagen, but excluding London, have called for more stringent regulations to be put in place across the continent to tackle the deadly levels of air pollution caused by diesel vehicles.
Nuclear fusion needs a Wright brothers moment
30 Mar 2016
Nuclear fusion needs a “Wright brothers” moment, to convince the world of its promise of unlimited clean and safe energy and so unlock significant private investment, according to a physicist whose says his company is closing in on that goal.
China puts a chill on new wind energy projects
30 Mar 2016
The Chinese government has halted the expansion of wind power in its northern provinces where a large number of turbines are churning out power that's being wasted. The move underscores the challenges facing China as it works to fulfill its clean energy ambitions.
Rockefellers divesting from fossil fuels
29 Mar 2016
The Rockefeller Family Fund - yes, those Rockefellers - just announced that it’s divesting from fossil fuels, saying “we must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.”
Greener trucks and buses on the move
29 Mar 2016
Low gasoline prices and continuing performance issues have slowed the growth of electric car sales. But that has not stymied progress in electrifying larger vehicles, including garbage trucks, city buses, and medium-sized trucks used by freight giants like FedEx.
After 115 years, Scotland is coal-free
29 Mar 2016
The Longannet power station, the last and largest coal-fired power plant in Scotland, has ceased operations.What once was the largest coal plant in Europe shut down after 46 years before the eyes of workers and journalists, who gathered in the main control room.
Rooftop solar booms in Japan
29 Mar 2016
Japan’s home rooftops are emerging as the next hot spot in what for years has been one of the biggest solar markets in the world, marking a move beyond the utility-scale projects in rich industrial nations that have fueled most of the industry’s growth.
Australian governments subsidising fossil fuel use by more than $30,000 a minute, analysis finds
Fri 13 Mar 2026
Australian federal and state government subsidies that encourage fossil fuel use and help drive the climate crisis will reach $16.3bn this year after leaping by nearly 10%, according to a new analysis.
‘We make a lot of money’: Trump downplays rise in gas prices during Iran war
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Donald Trump on Thursday shrugged off the economic toll the war in Iran is taking on gas prices across the United States, writing on social media that “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money”.
What does China’s 15th ‘five-year plan’ mean for climate change?
10 Mar 2026
China’s leadership has published a draft of its 15th five-year plan setting the strategic direction for the nation out to 2030, including support for clean energy and energy security.
Eight countries warn EU not to weaken carbon market
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Spain, the Netherlands and six other governments have urged the European Union not to dismantle or suspend the bloc's emissions trading system, its main climate change policy, as Brussels hunts for ways to curb energy prices.
UK emissions fall 2.4% in 2025 as coal hits 400-year low
9 Mar 2026
The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.4% in 2025 to their lowest level in more than 150 years, according to new analysis.
Mark Carney just picked his lane on climate change
17 Feb 2026
COMMENT: Mark Carney's time as prime minister has been defined in part by his decision to roll back Trudeau-era climate policies.
'The situation is dire': War on Iran squeezes India's cooking-gas supplies
Mon 16 Mar 2026
The shockwaves of a war being fought nearly 3,000km away are now reaching India's kitchens.
Vanuatu moves forward with UN climate resolution despite Trump opposition
9 Mar 2026
The Trump administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.
Limiting warming to 2C is ‘crucial’ to protect pristine Antarctic Peninsula
24 Feb 2026
Keeping global warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures is “crucial” for limiting damage to the Antarctic Peninsula’s unique ecosystems, according to a new study.
'Blackwater' lakes and rivers in the Congo Basin are now emitting ancient carbon into the atmosphere
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Carbon that has been buried in the Congo Basin's peatlands for millennia is seeping into lakes and rivers. Why this is happening remains unclear, but researchers warn that tropical peatlands could be nearing a tipping point.
Companies – including Blackrock – retired 2 million carbon credits after Verra suspended project
Thu 12 Mar 2026
Verra suspended the Pacajai REDD project in Brazil in September 2023, pending an investigation into the project’s validity. That didn’t stop Mastercard, BlackRock, Philip Morris International from retiring carbon credits from the project to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
Summit aims to revive stalled UN talks on phasing out fossil fuels
Wed 11 Mar 2026
Colombia and the Netherlands have set out three priorities for a conference on phasing out fossil fuels they will co-host in Colombia in April.
