International: All stories
Hot air: Poznan talks will create 13,000 tonnes of carbon
2 Dec 2008
Staging a global forum on climate change is a dilemma, for it adds to very problem it is trying to solve.
CO2 levels reach highest point … and still growing
28 Nov 2008
Levels of climate-warming greenhouse gases continue to increase in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation says in its latest report.
POZNAN 1: Where the big players stand
28 Nov 2008
After a year of debate on what a post-Kyoto climate deal should look like, the United Nations has published a report setting out its ideas in the hope that it will facilitate an agreement during negotiations in Poznan, Poland, next week.
POZNAN 2: We need a shared vision, says UN chief
28 Nov 2008
The need for a shared vision in long-term world collaboration on climate change will be stressed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the climate change talks in Poznan next week.
POZNAN 3: Our stand won’t change, vows India
28 Nov 2008
Emerging Asian powerhouse India has made it clear that the Poznan talks next week will not bring a change in its controversial stance on greenhouse gas emissions.
POZNAN 4: Maldives awaits dawn of doomsday
28 Nov 2008
The fate of the Maldives, South Asia's most expensive tourist destination, is set to be one of the features in discussions at the UN climate conference in Poznan next week
Shell signs for Australia’s carbon capture institute
28 Nov 2008
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, will become a founding member of Australia’s $A100 million carbon capture and storage institute aimed at speeding low-emissions power output.
‘Green Pope’ switches Vatican on to solar energy
28 Nov 2008
Eco-friendly Pope Benedict will be warmed by solar heating in the Vatican hall where he holds his weekly general audience with the faithful.
British climate change bill shows how it can be done
25 Nov 2008
New Zealand lawmakers might be unable to agree on how to tackle climate change, but an extraordinary show of cross-party unity by their British counterparts is about to make that country the first in the world to have legally binding emissions reductions targets.
Key joins APEC leaders in call to fight climate change
25 Nov 2008
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, whose new government has suspended the country’s emissions trading scheme, is among Asia-Pacific leaders who have collectively called for a comprehensive effort to address climate change through international cooperation.
Top entrepreneurs see climate change as growing strategic concern
25 Nov 2008
Leading entrepreneurs view climate change as a growing strategic concern, according to a survey conducted as part of Ernst & Young's second annual global cleantech insights and trends report.
Governors sign pact to work with Obama – and each other
25 Nov 2008
US state leaders are cheering President-elect Barack Obama's plans to make addressing climate change a national priority - but say they'll continue to move forward on their own.
New UN guide seeks to reduce computer waste
25 Nov 2008
The United Nations has launched a new guide on how to recycle computer equipment in a way that minimises the impact of waste on health and the environment, particularly in developing countries.
Obama vows ‘new chapter’ in US climate change policy
21 Nov 2008
President-elect Barack Obama has sent an explicit message to international negotiators of a new global warming treaty that, under his administration, the US will move to greatly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.
Protests follow UK’s first carbon permits auction
21 Nov 2008
The UK government is facing protests from various quarters after it said that the proceeds of the sale of carbon permits would not necessarily be used to tackle climate change issues.
British MPs pass landmark climate change bill
21 Nov 2008
MPs have given final approval to a bill committing Britain to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 - the first country to have such a legally binding framework on climate change.
Climate change momentum fading, says survey
21 Nov 2008
Climate change is fading as a priority in the Pacific Rim as the gloomy state of the global economy takes precedence, a survey of opinion leaders showed this week.
Europe's $14 billion clean-coal plan running out of backers
21 Nov 2008
A European proposal to spend $US14 billion testing how to pump greenhouse gases underground is itself getting buried.
Voluntary carbon market first to embrace REDD
21 Nov 2008
The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) has become the first global carbon accounting standard to introduce robust rules designed to unlock vital funding for credible agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) projects.
Climate change goes to Hollywood
21 Nov 2008
Climate change is going to the movies. Maybe not, but screen writers gathered in Los Angeles anyway to discuss how incorporating the growing threat of climate change into primetime storylines could inspire viewers to live green.
China outlines plans for domestic carbon trading
18 Nov 2008
Chinese officials claim their government will establish a nationwide carbon trading scheme.
Beware the brown peril – the abc of ABCs
18 Nov 2008
A three kilometre-thick "brown cloud" of man-made pollution, which stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China to the western Pacific Ocean, is making Asian cities darker, speeding up the melting of Himalayan glaciers and affecting human health, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme report.
Aussies march to back climate change action
18 Nov 2008
Tens of thousands of Australians took part in mass protests at the weekend to call for tough government action on controlling climate change.
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.
Australia-US minerals deal underpinned decision to allow mining company to clear threatened indigenous forest
23 Feb 2026
The Australian government’s decision to allow the US mining giant Alcoa to continue clearing swathes of Western Australian jarrah forest despite past illegal clearing practices was made in part due to a critical minerals deal reached between Australia and the Trump administration last year, a new document shows.
Repeal of endangerment finding is part of a systematic effort by US to dismantle climate policy
Today 12:30pm
COMMENT: Climate policy expert and founder of the NewClimate Institute in Cologne, Germany, explains what the step means for the US and for global climate diplomacy.
3,600 times faster: China is shaking up the steel industry
Wed 25 Feb 2026
For over a century, making steel meant coal, heat, and hours of waiting. A Chinese research team now reports collapsing that process into just three to six seconds; no coal, near zero emissions, and a vortex lance already moving toward commercial production. The technology is called flash ironmaking, and in February 2026, its implications are still unfolding.
Spain defends EU’s flagship climate law against attacks from other capitals
Today 12:30pm
Spain has come to the defense of the European Union's bedrock climate law, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warning fellow European leaders against dismantling the embattled Emissions Trading System.
UK Greens win by-election as anti-data centre protests mount
Today 12:30pm
The Green Party's Hannah Spencer won the contest for the vacant parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party coming second, and Labour pushed into third place.
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.
South Korean farmers sue utility giant KEPCO over climate damage to crops
Wed 25 Feb 2026
As harvest season approached last November, farmer Ma Yong-un walked through his apple orchard in southern South Korea with a growing sense of dread.
World leaders invited to see Pacific climate destruction before COP31
Today 12:30pm
The leaders and climate ministers of governments around the world will be invited to meetings on the Pacific islands of Fiji, Palau and Tuvalu in the months leading up to the COP31 climate summit in November.
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.
Africa primed for solar breakthrough after record capacity growth
Today 12:30pm
The continent of Africa looks set to emerge as a key driver of global solar power production over the rest of the 2020s thanks to a potent mix of policy support, rapid economic growth and declining component costs.
Floods and landslides in Brazil kill at least 30 after record rainfall
Thu 26 Feb 2026
Three firefighters pulled a man’s body from the mud amid the rubble of houses swept away in a landslide in south-eastern Brazil, where 30 people died and 39 were still missing on Tuesday after torrential rains.
UN approves first carbon credits under Paris Agreement market mechanism
Fri 27 Feb 2026
The United Nations has approved the first credits to be issued under a carbon market established by the Paris climate accord, aimed at reducing emissions – a mechanism that has faced scrutiny over greenwashing concerns.
