International: All stories
Denmark lures e-car owners with $40,000 tax break
4 Dec 2009
Is saving $40,000 at the showroom enough to get drivers behind the wheel of an electric car?
UN suspends approval of China wind farms
4 Dec 2009
The UN body that oversees carbon credit trading has suspended approval of some Chinese wind farms amid questions about how Beijing obtains money through the system.
Don’t trust Indonesia, warns forest report
4 Dec 2009
Indonesia cannot be trusted to lock up its forests as part of future global carbon trading scheme while corruption in the logging industry remains a two-billion-dollars-a-year problem, a human rights group says.
Australian scientist quits over ETS 'censorship'
4 Dec 2009
A senior Australian environmental economist has resigned after saying his criticism of the emissions trading scheme was censored.
World news agencies join forces for Copenhagen
4 Dec 2009
Eleven international news agencies have launched a joint Facebook page to interact with news consumers across the globe during the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
Senate shambles as Aussie ETS vote due today
27 Nov 2009
The Australian government is confident the Senate will vote late today on its emissions trading scheme following a day of political turmoil yesterday.
Obama to vow 17% emission cuts in Copenhagen
27 Nov 2009
President Barack Obama will personally commit the United States to a goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 17 per cent at next month's Copenhagen climate summit.
Chinese premier, too, taking cuts promise to Denmark
27 Nov 2009
China says it will trim its "carbon intensity" 40 to 45 per cent by the year 2020 as compared to 2005 levels.
Ban says Obama vital to Copenhagen success
27 Nov 2009
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday welcomed the announcement that US President Barack Obama will attend the Copenhagen climate conference next month.
US and India pledge common action on climate change
27 Nov 2009
The United States and India have pledged common action to fight climate change and to build a new global clean energy economy.
Science update shows it’s getting hotter faster
27 Nov 2009
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the world's foremost body for weighing and assessing climate science - received a kick in the pants yesterday from members who say the climate situation is much worse than the IPCC has reported.
Hacker scandal sends ripples through science community
27 Nov 2009
The fallout continues over the theft of private e-mails from a server at a world-renowned climate change research unit in Britain.
California takes step to limit emissions
27 Nov 2009
California has taken a major step toward creating a broad-based trading system to limit emissions of pollutants blamed for harmful climate change.
‘Human’ CO2 emissions continue to rise
20 Nov 2009
Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities rose 2 per cent in 2008 to an all-time high of 1.3 tonnes of carbon per capita per year, according to a paper published yesterday.
Obama and Hu shake hands on climate deal
20 Nov 2009
China and the United States, the largest producers of greenhouse gases, will team up to fight climate change and create clean energy, say their leaders.
Climate officials cling to hope for Copenhagen
20 Nov 2009
Senior climate change negotiators are optimistic about the Copenhagen talks next month after climate, energy and environment ministers gathered for a meeting in the Danish capital this week.
South Korea, Brazil set carbon emissions targets
20 Nov 2009
South Korea and Brazil are the latest countries to announced greenhouse gas reduction targets as the world heads for key climate change talks in Copenhagen.
Police probe Mafia ties in wind energy scams
20 Nov 2009
Italian finance police have arrested two prominent businessmen in the wind energy sector on charges of fraud.
Survey reveals Aussies’ climate change doubts
20 Nov 2009
Millions of Australians are having trouble coming to grips with the fact that climate change is caused by humans, a new survey suggests.
Fight climate change with free condoms, says UN
20 Nov 2009
Free condoms and family planning advice are seen as two important weapons in the climate change battle, according to the United Nations.
Jaguar sinks teeth into climate change
20 Nov 2009
The world’s fastest computer, the Jaguar XT5, is hot on the trail of climate change.
Aussie agriculture backflip could be first of many
16 Nov 2009
The Australian government’s sudden backflip on agriculture yesterday could lead to even more concessions being made to try to get the country’s proposed emissions trading scheme through the Senate in the next couple of weeks.
Britain to build 10 nuclear power stations
13 Nov 2009
Britain will build 10 nuclear power stations to supply up to 25 per cent of the country’s energy needs.
Can Obama yet save the day at Copenhagen?
13 Nov 2009
The world's first global treaty to combat climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, was agreed in December 1997 after exhausting, all-night negotiations in Japan that saw arguments, desperate phone calls back to leaders in capital cities and inspired diplomacy.
Ban calls on US to put full weight behind talks
13 Nov 2009
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the United States to take a leading role in forging a new international pact to combat global warming, warning that the consequences of failure outweigh the cost of tackling climate change.
Carbon price must at least double, warns watchdog
13 Nov 2009
The International Energy Agency has warned that the price of carbon credits will have to more than double from the levels they now trade at in Europe to make high-tech solutions to climate change economically attractive.
$500b annual bill for climate delay, says report
13 Nov 2009
Governments must act now to ward off catastrophic climate change or face additional costs of $500 billion per year of delay, says a report by the International Energy Agency.
Vulnerable nations call on big countries to act
13 Nov 2009
Leaders of 11 nations vulnerable to climate change have called on the developed world to pledge 1.5 percent of their gross national product annually for climate action in the developed world.
Turnbull feels heat over sceptics remark
13 Nov 2009
Australian Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has shrugged off a senior colleague's suggestions that the party is dominated by climate change sceptics.
What happens when the Age of Oil comes to an end
13 Nov 2009
The race for the world's remaining oil reserves could get very nasty.
Big returns to come from lithium battery and car investment
13 Nov 2009
By Jeff Siegel - Green Chip Review.- What's the best way to play the coming lithium boom?
It’s official: US goes cool on Copenhagen
6 Nov 2009
The US has given up hope of reaching a global climate change treaty at Copenhagen and is working towards a deal late next year, the Obama administration said yesterday.
Senate moves on energy ... without Republicans
6 Nov 2009
Democrats on a key US Senate committee today bypassed a Republican boycott and approved a sweeping plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Campaigners call carbon markets corrupt
6 Nov 2009
The world's carbon trading markets’ growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners have warned.
Emissions trading doesn’t work, says scientist
6 Nov 2009
A government scientist has spoken out against Australia’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, saying carbon trading and offset schemes appear ineffective in terms of reducing greenhouse gases.
Gore denies ‘carbon billionaire’ accusation
6 Nov 2009
Green campaigner Al Gore has been accused of making billions of dollars from championing climate change issues.
Ban lays out criteria for success in Copenhagen
30 Oct 2009
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has laid out his four benchmarks for success at the Copenhagen climate talks which open in a few weeks.
China-US pact unlikely from Obama visit
30 Oct 2009
President Barack Obama's visit to China next month is not likely to yield a separate accord on countering global warming, says the top US envoy on climate change.
Europe faces oversupply of carbon credits
30 Oct 2009
A vast supply of pollution credits from abroad is threatening to overwhelm systems for capping and trading greenhouse gases, a senior European Union official has warned.
Aussies face losing famous barbie at the beach
30 Oct 2009
The changing climate might put paid to the beach lifestyle revered by Australians.
Sydney drags chain in Asian carbon-hub race
30 Oct 2009
Sydney might be the loser as Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore gear up to be the Asian hub of carbon trading.
Climate change turmoil poses security risks
30 Oct 2009
An island in the Indian Ocean, vital to the US military, disappears as the sea level rises … rivers critical to India and Pakistan shrink, increasing military tensions in South Asia … drought, famine and disease forces population shifts and political turmoil in the Middle East.
All aboard the climate train to Copenhagen ...
30 Oct 2009
A one-time train link between Kyoto and Copenhagen opens up next week - a UN-sponsored one-month, 9000-kilometre journey symbolically joining the site of the last global warming pact with what is hoped to be the birthplace of the next major treaty to combat climate change.
Farmers condemn Stern’s vegetarian call
30 Oct 2009
British farmers have accused a leading climate change expert of being “irresponsible” for urging the world to turn vegetarian.
Australia gives e-cars a three-month workout
30 Oct 2009
A road trial of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which could one day end up in every Australian driveway, is under way.
Australia readies for key climate debate next week
23 Oct 2009
The Australian Government’s last bid to have a carbon trading scheme in place before the Copenhagen climate talks kicked off yesterday with the reintroduction of carbon reduction legislation into parliament.
Emissions from major nations continue to rise
23 Oct 2009
Harmful greenhouse gas emissions produced by industrialised countries rose for the seventh consecutive year in 2007, the United Nations reported yesterday.
Europe: Sign the deal and we’ll cut emissions 95%
23 Oct 2009
Europe tried to reassert its international leadership in the fight against global warming yesterday, offering to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95 per cent by 2050 and by 30 per cent by 2020 if a climate change pact is sealed in Copenhagen in six weeks.
Interim steps … that’s about it from Copenhagen
23 Oct 2009
With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it now appears that there is little chance that international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December will produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming.
China, India forge alternative to UN treaty
23 Oct 2009
China and India’s joint plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions provides the developing world with an alternative to the global climate treaty that wealthier nations want them to sign in Copenhagen this year, analysts said.
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.
