International: All stories
Trump stranglehold adds to growing doubts at climate talks
8 Nov 2024
Nearly 200 nations will soon gather for the annual COP29 summit, where efforts to increase funding for poor countries and slash emissions will run against the reality of a hostile American president.
Deadlock over climate finance is undermining Paris agreement, Singapore minister says
8 Nov 2024
Efforts by the United States and others to persuade more countries to contribute to a new global climate financing initiative risks undermining the Paris agreement, Singapore's Environment Minister Grace Fu told Reuters on Wednesday.
European climate agency says this will likely be the hottest year on record - again
8 Nov 2024
For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it’s ever been.
Big Oil’s dirty legacy in Nigeria
8 Nov 2024
Who will clean up the environmental mess when Shell and others pull out of the Niger Delta?
Climate adaptation finance gap swells to at least $187bn per year
8 Nov 2024
This is according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s ‘Adaptation Gap Report 2024’, which emphasises the increasing vulnerability of developing nations to the worsening effects of climate change and underscores the urgent need for much greater financial support.
‘Drill, baby, drill’: What Trump’s victory could mean for the future, according to climate experts
7 Nov 2024
Trump's victory could be a 'major blow' for global climate action but experts say it may not slow the roll of the green transition.
Why didn’t climate change come up more in the presidential campaign?
7 Nov 2024
Climate change has dangerously supercharged fires, hurricanes, floods and heat waves. Why didn’t it come up more in the presidential campaign?
Leaders from key countries to skip COP29 climate summit
7 Nov 2024
World leaders from major economies including the United States, the European Union and Brazil are planning to skip this year's United Nations climate change summit, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Scotland passes climate change legislation
7 Nov 2024
Scotland has officially scrapped annual climate targets as well as its 2030 and 2040 interim targets, but is still aiming to reach net-zero by 2045.
Dams have taken half the water from Australia’s second biggest river – and climate change will make it even worse
7 Nov 2024
The largest wetland on Australia’s second longest river, the Murrumbidgee in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, is drying up. This is bad news for the plants, animals and people who rely on the vast Lowbidgee Floodplain.
EU accused of inviting fossil fuel executives to COP28 under false pretences
7 Nov 2024
The European Commission is facing criticism from politicians and campaigners for giving a free pass for senior oil and gas executives to attend last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
‘The world is watching’: Why US election result could dictate global progress on climate action
6 Nov 2024
The US presidential election comes just days ahead of the world’s most important climate negotiations at COP29. Experts say the outcome will have a profound impact on the US’ leadership role at the talks, and beyond.
How the media is failing us
6 Nov 2024
COMMENT: Journalists setting global news agendas tend to have higher incomes and little personal experience of societal catastrophe. Our complacency and lack of scientific training encourage us to underplay the biggest story of them all, climate change.
Legal experts say Trump could quit Paris pact – but leaving UNFCCC much harder
6 Nov 2024
As the US Senate approved the US joining the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it’s unclear if a president could easily pull the country out.
Returning grazing land to native forests would yield big climate benefits
6 Nov 2024
Removing cattle from carbon-rich soils in the eastern U.S. and western Europe while intensifying production elsewhere could drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, with little hit to global protein production, a new study shows.
Global efforts to curb methane fall short as emissions keep rising
6 Nov 2024
Methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry, including coal mining, remain close to a record level set in 2019.
COP29: What is the ‘new collective quantified goal’ on climate finance?
6 Nov 2024
As nations assemble at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, one issue is expected to dominate the summit: climate finance.
The US election’s climate choice
5 Nov 2024
There are many clear choices at stake in the US Presidential election. One of the starkest is climate.
China hopes US will continue climate change collaboration whoever wins election, official says
5 Nov 2024
China hopes the United States will be able to continue to cooperate with other countries on climate change, whatever the outcome of the presidential election next week, a senior government official said on Friday.
We are in danger of forgetting what the climate crisis means: extinction
5 Nov 2024
COMMENT: The catastrophic floods in Valencia remind us that the fate of human beings and animals is what is truly important.
Heat-related deaths and diseases rising due to climate change, experts warn
5 Nov 2024
Lancet report says average person experienced 50 more days of dangerous temperatures than normal due to climate crisis.
Prince William begins a visit to South Africa that focuses on climate and the environment
5 Nov 2024
Prince William will speak with young environmentalists and local fishermen during a visit to South Africa starting Monday that will see his annual Earthshot Prize award $1.2 million in grants to five organisations for innovative environmental ideas.
Austria's alpine refuges and trails crumble as climate warms
5 Nov 2024
Experts say warmer temperatures across the Alps are accelerating glacier melt and thawing permafrost, the year-round ice that binds together giant slabs of rock.
Spain’s apocalyptic floods show two undeniable truths: the climate crisis is getting worse and Big Oil is killing us
4 Nov 2024
COMMENT: If past experience is any guide, the world’s reaction to the floods in Spain last week will be similar to that of motorway drivers at a crash scene: slow down, take in the horror, outwardly express sympathy, inwardly give thanks that fate picked someone else – and foot on the accelerator.
Climate-fuelled extreme weather is hiking up car insurance rates
4 Nov 2024
Home insurers have raised premiums after extreme weather events. Now car insurers in the U.S. are doing the same thing.
An overlooked solution for climate-friendly buildings: Better floor plans
4 Nov 2024
A new algorithm-based method of designing floor plans for apartment buildings could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring more efficient use of space, according to a new study.
Nine years after the Paris Agreement, the UN confronts the world’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
4 Nov 2024
In one of three new reports on emissions, UN officials went as far as saying that the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius may be out of reach.
UN report obscures meat’s true climate impact
4 Nov 2024
A United Nations climate report made headlines last week with a stark warning: the planet is on track to heat by 2.6 to 3.1 degrees Celsius within the century.
Deadliest weather made worse by climate change - scientists
1 Nov 2024
Human-caused climate change made the ten deadliest extreme weather events of the last 20 years more intense and more likely, according to new analysis.
BRICS countries reject global climate action
1 Nov 2024
Sovereignty was the theme of this year’s BRICS Summit, the 16th annual conference of major oil producing and rapidly developing countries.
Authoritarianism is on the rise. Is climate change to blame?
1 Nov 2024
There's evidence that global warming creates fertile ground for political strongmen to come to power.
The case for Kamala Harris in a burning world
1 Nov 2024
By Jeff Goodell | COMMENT: The race between Harris and Trump is not about saving the planet. It’s about saving ourselves.
California's schools are embracing vegan meals
1 Nov 2024
How have plant-based lunches spread so successfully? Credit environmentally conscious students — and a handful of state funding programmes.
COP29 must kickstart stalled progress on the lifeline that is adaptation
1 Nov 2024
Targets for adapting to climate change are meaningless without the means to act. It’s time for a clear adaptation finance goal.
Spain battles deadliest flood disaster in decades as death toll rises
31 Oct 2024
Spain is enduring its worst flooding disaster in decades, with at least 95 people dead and dozens more missing, after huge rains swept the eastern province of Valencia and beyond.
Planet-heating pollutants in atmosphere hit record levels in 2023
31 Oct 2024
Carbon dioxide concentration has increased by more than 10% in just two decades, reports World Meteorological Organization.
Fossil fuel transition pledge left out of COP16 draft agreement
31 Oct 2024
An earlier draft decision at the UN nature summit included a call to transition away from fossil fuels – but it has been cut from the latest version.
Mercedes-Benz opens Europe’s first battery recycling plant
31 Oct 2024
Mercedes-Benz has opened Europe’s first battery recycling plant with an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process, making it the first car manufacturer to close the battery recycling loop with an in-house facility.
Microsoft clinches ocean-based carbon removal deal
31 Oct 2024
The tech giant will contract an initial 1,333 tons of carbon dioxide removal from Ebb Carbon, with options to purchase up to 350,000 tons of removal over 10 years.
Trump megadonor’s plan to change US democracy
31 Oct 2024
A Texas fracking billionaire wants to rewrite the US Constitution to advance climate denial and other extreme far-right priorities.
NZ adopts 'underwhelming' Commonwealth Ocean Declaration
30 Oct 2024
Commonwealth nations including Aotearoa and Pacific Island states have adopted the Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration.
UN COP16 nature talks gridlocked as conservation funding trickles in
30 Oct 2024
Advocacy groups said the pledges – which brings the total raised by the fund to about $400 million – fell far short of the billions of dollars envisioned for the fund.
Alarm call as world's trees slide towards extinction
30 Oct 2024
Scientists assessing dangers posed to the world’s trees have revealed that more than a third of species are facing extinction in the wild.
US and European hydrogen stock prices collapse as prospects deflate
30 Oct 2024
Projects face lower than expected demand, regulatory uncertainties and growing investor scepticism.
PNG will not attend UN COP29 summit: Foreign Minister Tkatchenko
30 Oct 2024
Tkatchenko said: “Papua New Guinea is making this stand for the benefit of all small island nations. We will no longer tolerate empty promises and inaction, while our people suffer the devastating consequences of climate change.”
Landmark court case sees activist group sue gas giant Santos for allegedly misleading investors
30 Oct 2024
Gas giant Santos told investors it had a clear plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2040 but had no evidence to back it up, the Federal Court has heard during the first morning of litigation against the gas giant.
COP this – gas is not a climate solution
30 Oct 2024
Hosting COP31 climate talks is an opportunity to showcase South Australia to the world, writes Belinda Noble, but not if we allow it to promote gas.
Planet will warm as much as 3.1°C under current policies: UN Report
29 Oct 2024
Without greater action, the planet will warm as much as 3.1 degrees Celsius, with a “massive gap between rhetoric and reality” that must be closed by new climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, according to the UN.
UK’s next Paris pledge should commit to ‘81% emissions cut by 2035’: govt advisors
29 Oct 2024
The UK should make an international pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 81% below 1990 levels by 2035, according to the government’s advisory Climate Change Committee.
More companies ditch junk carbon offsets but new buyers loom
29 Oct 2024
Corporate purchasers are moving away from projects rated ineffective by a watchdog even as dealmaking at the UN climate summit offers potential for a comeback.
Sydney records most rain since weather station opened in 1858
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Sydney's wettest August in 27 years has tipped the city's recent climate into uncharted territory.
A coal-fired plant in Michigan was to close. But Trump forced it to keep running at $1m a day
Mon 25 Aug 2025
Donald Trump has made several unusual moves to elongate the era of coal, such as giving the industry exemptions from pollution rules. But the gambit to keep one Michigan coal-fired power station running has been extraordinary – by forcing it to remain open even against the wishes of its operator.
Is historically arid Beijing ready for a wetter future?
Mon 25 Aug 2025
Beijing's mountainous northern Huairou district and neighbouring Miyun district received a year's worth of rain in a single week, triggering flash floods that devastated entire villages and killed 44 people in the deadliest flood since 2012.
EU wildfires hit new record as flames scorch area larger than Cyprus
Mon 25 Aug 2025
The area burned this year has exceeded the 1 million hectare mark for the first time since records started in 2006.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
Wed 20 Aug 2025
When climate change undermines the climate plan.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
India needs $467 billion climate finance by 2030 to decarbonise 4 key sectors
Mon 25 Aug 2025
India will need to mobilise USD $467 billion in climate finance by 2030 to put four of its most carbon-intensive sectors – power, steel, cement and transport – on a low-carbon pathway.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Africa’s top climate change challenges: a fairer deal on phasing out fossil fuels and mobilising funds
Fri 22 Aug 2025
African countries have made binding commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, they will need to shift to renewable energy and stop mining and using fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Bolivia will choose a new president but environmental activists see little hope of progress
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Many Indigenous and environmental leaders doubt the election will bring progress in stopping deforestation, wildfires or pollution in the Amazon.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
