International: All stories
Arnie orders full steam ahead on climate strategy
18 Nov 2008
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered state agencies to begin preparing for the projected impacts of global warming on the economy, people and natural resources.
Shopping centre forms America’s first carbon neutral zone
18 Nov 2008
The green movement in the United State has taken a significant step forward with the launch in Atlanta of the country’s first "carbon neutral zone.”
Carbon-sniffing satellite sleuth readies for launch
18 Nov 2008
NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to begin final launch preparations.
Exxon Mobil chief slams Australian ETS modelling
14 Nov 2008
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has taken a potshot at the Australian Treasury's view of the likely economic effects of emissions trading, saying it wanted no part of the carbon reduction scheme.
Ban calls on economic summit to tackle global warming
14 Nov 2008
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for this weekend’s Washington summit on the global financial crisis to seize the opportunity to tackle global warming as well, stressing that such action would create jobs and boost the world’s economies.
World-wide investment in clean energy falls sharply
14 Nov 2008
Investment in low-carbon technologies is suffering its first reversal after several years of record growth, as the financial crisis dims the sector's prospects.
1972 book right on target with predicted global collapse
14 Nov 2008
Forecasts of global ecological and economic collapse by mid-century contained in the controversial 1972 book The Limits to Growth are still on-track, according to new CSIRO research.
Australian car makers to get $6 billion green boost
14 Nov 2008
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a $6.2 billion plan to make the automotive industry more economically and environmentally sustainable by 2020.
UN sees need for global body to tackle biodiversity
14 Nov 2008
The possibility of establishing a United Nations-supported scientific intergovernmental body to address biodiversity loss and protect ecosystems is being discussed at a global conference in Malaysia.
Clever climate change thinking could win you $75,000
14 Nov 2008
London’s Financial Times is launching a $75,000 competition to find the world’s most creative ideas for tackling the threat of climate change.
Carbon dioxide levels already in danger zone, says new study
11 Nov 2008
If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study by a group of 10 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
BP decisions big blow to Britain’s energy hopes
11 Nov 2008
International oil giant BP has dealt a double blow to Britain’s energy plans by pulling out of involvement in designing Britain’s first carbon capture and storage project and by announcing it will concentrate its wind-power investments in the United States.
US must take leading role in climate change, says UN official
11 Nov 2008
The head of the United Nations climate change body has said he hopes the United States will take a more active role in fighting global warming once Barack Obama becomes president.
Rudd under pressure to water down emissions scheme
11 Nov 2008
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is under pressure to water down his government’s plans to tackle climate change as the global financial crisis threatens jobs and economic growth, experts say.
Don’t sit around and wait, Aussie farmers told
11 Nov 2008
Australian agriculture can’t afford to sit around and wait until 2013 for government to decide how it fits into the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, a global expert in carbon trading says.
Shell chief urges Canadian governments to take control
11 Nov 2008
One of Canada’s top oil men says voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have failed and should be replaced by coherent and consistent government-mandated rules.
Meeting hears why Africa left behind in carbon offset trade
11 Nov 2008
Administrative and technical problems mean that Africa cannot profit from schemes to tackle climate change through projects to cut carbon emissions in developing countries, climate specialists meeting in Dakar said.
Obama 1: Dark days ahead for fossil fuels
7 Nov 2008
The election of Barack Obama as US President signals a tectonic shift in the nation’s attitudes to future energy sources and to the environment.
Obama 2: Climate plan must have priority, says Pachauri
7 Nov 2008
President-elect Barack Obama should put global warming ahead of a domestic plan to cut carbon emissions, says Rajendra Pachauri, head of a Nobel Prize-winning United Nations panel of climate-change scientists.
Obama 3: Canada quick to seek climate deal
7 Nov 2008
Canada has its eyes on a North American-wide climate change deal with president-elect Barack Obama, the country's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday.
Obama 4: These guys owe us 18 square miles of new trees
7 Nov 2008
The US presidential campaigns spent millions to get their messages across. But a writer at The Scientist wondered about the environmental cost.
New EU states team up against parts of climate plan
7 Nov 2008
Seven eastern members of the European Union have upheld a joint stand against parts of the bloc's climate package which they fear could harm their economies.
Canadian firms taking climate change seriously, says report
7 Nov 2008
Canada's biggest companies are making climate change a higher priority, partly through more widespread disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.
Climate change might hurt giant pandas, say scientists
7 Nov 2008
Researchers at Britain’s York University have determined that climate change may be about to affect the lives of rare species such as the giant panda, because of fears that global warming is likely to result in substantial re-distribution of plants and animals.
Agriculture and emissions trading don’t mix, says report
4 Nov 2008
Imposing emissions trading on to agriculture is like trying to fit a saddle on a cow, the Australian Government has been told in a report released yesterday.
Rudd government to go easy on emissions trading scheme
4 Nov 2008
The Australian Government has no ambitions to set an example by moving dramatically ahead of other countries with its emissions trading regime, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says.
UN expert calls for world action to halt desertification
4 Nov 2008
The “silent” crisis of desertification or land degradation if tackled properly can help to address a range of world problems, says a senior United Nations environment expert.
No cap and no fixed price on carbon, investors say
4 Nov 2008
An international gathering of finance and carbon market experts has called on the Australian Government to avoid a price cap or fixed price for emissions permits.
Expert praises China's will to tackle climate change
4 Nov 2008
China's newly released white paper on climate change demonstrates that China has a strong "political will" to tackle global warming, says a German climate policy professor.
KPMG gets serious about climate change
4 Nov 2008
Professional services firm KPMG has launched a global initiative to combat climate change, which it describes as one of the biggest challenges facing the world today.
Households up for $1 a day under ETS, says Australian Treasury
31 Oct 2008
Emissions trading will cost Australian households a dollar a day when it starts in 2010, according to economic modeling released yesterday by the federal Treasury.
World business leaders back UN climate change deal
31 Oct 2008
The United Nations' drive to clinch a new global framework to curb climate change at its Copenhagen summit next year has been endorsed by global business leaders.
Goldman Sachs in pact with carbon-market firm Blue Source
31 Oct 2008
Goldman Sachs Group has signed a strategic alliance with Blue Source, a developer of projects to help companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
Brits reluctant investors in climate change, says report
31 Oct 2008
British investors are still failing to grasp the significant opportunity offered by climate change, according to a report from wealth management specialist Holden & Partners.
China issues post-Kyoto plans on climate change
31 Oct 2008
The clean development mechanism (CDM) should continue to be implemented even after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, says a white paper on China's policies on climate change.
Cement giant attacks EU carbon trading plans
31 Oct 2008
European cement giant Heidelberg says the European Commission's planned extension of its emissions trading scheme in 2013 could threaten cement production in the EU.
Europe sees first carbon exchange traded commodity
31 Oct 2008
ETF Securities has announced the launch of Europe’s first carbon exchange traded commodity (ETC), to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Australian scientists to help wean chemicals industry off crude oil
31 Oct 2008
CSIRO scientists have joined one of the world’s largest biotechnology consortia to help to develop crops which produce oils to be used by the chemicals industry as sustainable alternatives to those derived from the world’s non-renewable stocks of crude oil.
Charles urges world to keep on green course
31 Oct 2008
Prince Charles has urged Japan and other major nations to take action in the global “battle for survival” against climate change and emphasised that the current financial crisis should not be made an excuse to abandon efforts on emission cuts and forest conservation.
Miliband bows to pressure on UK aviation and shipping emissions
28 Oct 2008
The UK government is to announce today that it will include rapidly growing aviation and shipping emissions in Britain's commitment to curb its carbon footprint by 80 per cent by 2050.
Angry airlines condemn EU emissions decision
28 Oct 2008
European Union governments have given formal approval to a potentially costly system of capping greenhouse gases from any airline flying into or out of the trade bloc.
Climate change: A safe haven for worried investors?
28 Oct 2008
Climate change might be the safe haven investors are looking for in a volatile world, suggests a just-released report by Deutsche Asset Management, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank.
New climate deal possible in 2009, says EU chief
28 Oct 2008
A crucial global pact on climate change is possible by next year, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said in Beijing following two days of talks between Asian and European leaders.
Cities' leaders pledge action on climate change
28 Oct 2008
Leaders of 40 of the world's major cities have pledged action to fight climate change, taking measures ranging from promoting solar energy to tracking genetically modified food.
Brown faces defeat as Labour MPs revolt on climate change
24 Oct 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a defeat in the Commons next week over his climate change bill as a group of Labour MPs calls for emissions targets to include international flights and shipping.
Britain to auction first carbon allowances next month
24 Oct 2008
The British government has announced it will auction its first batch of carbon credits under the Emissions Trading Scheme next month.
Japan set to introduce voluntary carbon market
24 Oct 2008
Japan will introduce a voluntary carbon market based on companies' pledged emissions cuts and hopes that thousands of firms will sign up to what could become a forerunner of a mandatory cap-and-trade project.
Financial crisis blurs Australian Treasury's carbon view
24 Oct 2008
The Australian federal Treasury says its modelling that underpins the country’s imminent switch to carbon trading does not include analysis about the destructive impact of the global financial crisis.
Speed up ETS preparations, Australian businesses told
24 Oct 2008
Australian business leaders have been warned to speed up preparation for the incoming emissions trading scheme despite the credit crisis.
Settle it, and quickly, Ban tells Europe’s leaders
24 Oct 2008
United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed to leaders of the European Union the need to wrap up the bloc’s energy and climate package by the end of the year.
Researchers compare the footprint of meat vs. plant-based dog foods. The differences were staggering.
Mon 13 Oct 2025
Global pet food emissions rival those of a small country. A new UK study reveals that switching dogs to plant-based foods could slash emissions tenfold—without sacrificing nutrition.
Why Trump is not a death knell for global climate action
Tue 14 Oct 2025
In his rambling speech to the United Nations last month, United States President Donald Trump described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.
China carbon prices hit two-year low as market faces oversupply pressures
Tue 14 Oct 2025
Carbon credit prices in China have fallen to their lowest point since mid-2023, pressured by an excess of supply and tepid demand amid ongoing adjustments to the national emissions trading system.
'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
Today 10:45am
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.
India calls on COP30 to focus on lack of funds for developing nations
Today 10:45am
India has said the United Nations climate conference in Belm, Brazil, should focus on tackling the critical shortage of resources that developing countries need to adapt to climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
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.
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking disasters to global warming
Mon 13 Oct 2025
Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose work has been used in lawsuits against polluters.
