International: All stories
Scientists looked back in time to find the first signs of human-caused global warming. It’s far earlier than previously thought
19 Jun 2025
The human fingerprint on global warming was likely evident in Earth’s atmosphere far earlier than previously thought—even before the invention of modern cars, a new study says.
Adobe homes disaster-resilient solution for California
19 Jun 2025
Devastating California wildfires have brought renewed attention to a simple, disaster-resilient construction method that combines old and new.
Senate committee's changes to tax bill slam US solar stocks
18 Jun 2025
Shares of U.S. solar energy companies tumbled in extended trade on Monday after Republicans who control the U.S. Senate Finance Committee unveiled changes to President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill that would phase out solar, wind and energy tax credits by 2028.
Adnoc makes $19 billion takeover bid for Australia’s Santos
18 Jun 2025
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has made an $18.7 billion offer for Australian fossil fuel producer Santos Ltd., in one of the most audacious overseas moves yet by the Middle Eastern company as it seeks to expand its production of liquefied natural gas.
Extreme heat is the biggest threat to insurers and businesses
18 Jun 2025
Deadly temperatures put great stress not just on human life but also on the economy, infrastructure, agriculture and health care
Congo death toll hits 77 after extreme weather brings floods and sinks boats, 107 remain missing
18 Jun 2025
Authorities in Congo said the death toll following devastating floods and separate boat accidents has reached 77, with more than 100 people missing.
Bonn Bulletin: Climate talks delayed by agenda fight
18 Jun 2025
Start of mid-year negotiations held up by push to add finance for developing countries and trade measures as formal discussion items.
Why we’re barely keeping track of this growing climate problem
18 Jun 2025
Fossil fuel sites can emit a powerful greenhouse gas long after they shut down.
'Glimmer of hope' for marine life at UN Ocean conference
17 Jun 2025
The UN Ocean conference has been heralded a success, with more countries ratifying a key treaty to protect marine life and more progress on curbing plastics and illegal fishing in our seas.
Macron visits Greenland to show European support for the strategic Arctic island coveted by Trump
17 Jun 2025
French President Emmanuel Macron warned that Greenland is “not to be sold” nor “to be taken” in a key visit Sunday to the strategic Arctic territory coveted by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he’s conveying a message of French and European solidarity.
Bank unveils green loans plan to unlock trillions for climate finance
17 Jun 2025
IADB’s proposals involve lenders using public money to buy up renewable energy loans in poor countries.
New climate study highlights dire sea level warnings
17 Jun 2025
A new set of detailed clues gleaned from ancient fossil reefs on the Seychelle Islands shows an increasing likelihood that human-caused warming will raise the global average sea level at least 3 feet by 2100, at the high end of the projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Bonn climate summit a key test ahead of UN meet
17 Jun 2025
The Bonn meeting is critical to thrash out differences before the parties meet in November for a climate deal.
Decarbonising Europe’s heavy industry, it’s not ‘Mission Impossible’
17 Jun 2025
Balancing climate ambitions with competitiveness is a challenge for every industrial sector. Heavy industry faces an even tougher time, but a new report says net-zero is possible.
World leaders’ failure to act is pushing Earth past 1.5°C
16 Jun 2025
Based on mounting evidence, some scientists now fear we’ve entered a new era of the climate emergency, characterized by accelerated warming and amplified disasters.
Global oil prices soar after Israel attacks Iran
16 Jun 2025
Global oil prices jumped after Israel said it had struck Iran in a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
Why the EU is about to cripple its next climate target
16 Jun 2025
The European Commission is about to release a controversial new climate milestone, setting the bloc’s economic course for the next 15 years. Most EU governments, however, would prefer Brussels drop the issue.
Why the global area for regrowing trees is 71% smaller than thought
16 Jun 2025
Over the past decade, research has emerged suggesting that ramping up reforestation around the world could make a substantial contribution to tackling climate change.
Australian opposition poised for protracted brawl over climate targets
16 Jun 2025
The financial cost to reach net zero by 2050 may shape the Coalition’s decision on whether to retain or abandon the target, the new shadow minister, Dan Tehan, says, as he prepares to lead a heavily contested internal review of the policy.
Countries increasingly embracing carbon pricing to drive emission reduction, raise revenue: World Bank
16 Jun 2025
The number of operational carbon pricing instruments has grown significantly, from 5 in 2005 to 80 today, with India, Brazil, and Türkiye actively developing them.
Ocean current ‘collapse’ could trigger ‘profound cooling’ in northern Europe – even with global warming
13 Jun 2025
A “collapse” of key Atlantic ocean currents would cause winter temperatures to plunge across northern Europe, overriding the warming driven by human activity.
UN University report warns against carbon credits from REDD, tree planting, and improved forest management
13 Jun 2025
But the report stops short of recommending banning the trade in carbon temporarily stored in trees.
World Bank nuclear ban, RIP
13 Jun 2025
COMMENT: The decision from the World Bank board - which almost didn’t happen - could have profound implications for developing countries’ ability to industrialise without burning planet-warming fossil fuels.
Pará’s Amazon forest carbon deal in doubt as prosecutors move to block it
13 Jun 2025
The Brazilian state’s contract with foreign governments and companies has run into trouble over concerns it was premature and agreed without consulting Indigenous communities.
Fossil fuel billionaires are bankrolling the anti-trans movement
13 Jun 2025
An investigation found that 80% of anti-trans organisations received fossil fuel funding.
‘Win-win’: new maps reveal best opportunities for global reforestation
13 Jun 2025
New study shows regions with the best potential to regrow trees and suck climate-heating CO2 from the air.
18 new countries ratify High Seas Treaty at 2025 UN Ocean Conference
12 Jun 2025
On the first day of the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice, France, on Monday, 18 new countries ratified the High Seas Treaty for a total of 49 — just 11 shy of the 60 needed for the agreement to be enforced.
EPA to propose rolling back climate rule for power plants Wednesday
12 Jun 2025
It marks an escalation in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate initiatives from the federal government.
Ahead of UN climate talks, Brazil fast-tracks oil and highway projects that threaten the Amazon
12 Jun 2025
Months before hosting the U.N.'s first climate talks held in the Amazon, Brazil is fast-tracking a series of controversial decisions that undercut President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s lofty environmental rhetoric and show widening divisions within his cabinet.
Israel deports activist Greta Thunberg after military seized Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship
12 Jun 2025
Israel deported activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, the country's Foreign Ministry said, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on with 11 other people was seized by the Israeli military.
With the right support, green solutions can thrive and power a better world
12 Jun 2025
COMMENT: Clean-energy enterprises do far more than cut emissions; they create jobs, increase food security and farmers' incomes.
Explainer: How human-caused aerosols are ‘masking’ global warming
12 Jun 2025
Human-caused emissions of aerosols – tiny, light‑scattering particles produced mainly by burning fossil fuels – have long acted as an invisible brake on global warming.
New Zealand is failing to protect its vast ocean resources. We owe it to the world to act
11 Jun 2025
Less than 1% of our country’s seas are highly protected and the damaging practice of bottom-trawling must be restricted.
A credible UN carbon market needs rules that count – we’ve just set them
11 Jun 2025
COMMENT: The broad standards for a more ambitious market are now in place. But without a steady flow of investment, this progress will remain largely on paper.
US declares Biden fuel economy rules exceeded legal authority
11 Jun 2025
The agency last year said the rule for passenger cars and trucks would reduce gasoline consumption by 64 billion gallons.
Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix – and a fossil fuel lifeline
11 Jun 2025
Governments across Southeast Asia are looking at carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a way to meet climate targets.
Planet-warming emissions dropped when companies had to report them. EPA wants to end that
11 Jun 2025
The rule is now on the chopping block, one of many that President Donald Trump’s EPA argues is costly and burdensome for industry.
China's approvals of coal power plants grow after 2024 decline
11 Jun 2025
China approved 11.29 gigawatts of new coal power plants in the first three months of 2025, already exceeding the 10.34 GW approved in the first half of 2024.
Carbon capture ‘not going to happen,’ top fossil fuel advocate predicts
10 Jun 2025
In audio obtained by DeSmog, Bjorn Lomborg told a Fraser Institute event in Vancouver that the technology is way too expensive to be viable.
UN ocean summit opens in Nice with calls to boost marine protections
10 Jun 2025
A global summit on the dire state of the oceans opened Monday in France, with demands to ban bottom trawling and expand marine protections.
NASA scientists describe ‘absolute sh*tshow’ at agency as Trump budget seeks to dismantle top US climate lab
10 Jun 2025
NASA scientists are in a state of anxious limbo after the Trump administration proposed a budget that would eliminate one of the United States’ top climate labs – the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, or GISS – as a standalone entity.
Ziploc faces class action lawsuit over microplastics shedding concerns
10 Jun 2025
A lawsuit alleges that Ziploc bags shed microplastics when microwaved or frozen.
Earth's atmosphere hasn't had this much CO2 in millions of years
10 Jun 2025
New data shows that CO2 levels have broken through 430 parts per million, an indication that human-caused global warming will continue to warp the environment.
How ‘feedback loops’ and ‘non-linear thinking’ can inform climate policy
10 Jun 2025
The global shift towards a clean-energy system is much more than just a technological switch – it is a profound transformation of markets, industries and societal behaviours.
BlackRock is off Texas’ blacklist. Where the ESG battle stands now
9 Jun 2025
The world’s largest asset manager can now do business with Texas—here’s where it stands in other states.
Brazil’s civil society pledges tested as COP30 climate summit approaches
9 Jun 2025
Hopes of real civil influence at November’s UN negotiations in Belém are being undermined by costs, bureaucracy and mixed messaging.
Greenpeace Denmark complaint accuses dairy giant of 'systemic greenwashing'
9 Jun 2025
"Greenwashing and false marketing will not be tolerated, no matter how big you are and where you are based," said one Greenpeace Denmark campaigner.
Oil giant funds computer game that promotes fossil fuels to schoolchildren
9 Jun 2025
Equinor, the company looking to develop the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea, has funded a computer game aimed at UK school children, promoting the idea that fossil fuels are part of a green energy mix.
Treaty to protect seas short on support ahead of UN ocean summit
9 Jun 2025
Once the High Seas Treaty enters into force, experts say it will boost the health of oceans and their role in tackling climate change.
Labor accused of ‘gaslighting’ Australians on climate crisis as fossil fuel projects keep getting approved
9 Jun 2025
‘They offer sympathy and then just go and approve massive fossil fuel projects anyway,’ one advocate says.
Warmer seas fuel dangerous ‘weather bomb’ in New South Wales
3 Jul 2025
If the storm shapes up as predicted, we can expect to see damage to houses and trees as well as significant beach erosion – especially in heavily populated areas exposed to the storm’s southern flank.
How Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda as he runs for New York mayor
Fri 11 Jul 2025
Many of the democratic socialist’s policies aim to slash carbon emissions and boost environmental justice.
Rivers in southwest China breach warning levels, with thousands evacuated
Mon 14 Jul 2025
Twenty-five rivers in southwestern China exceeded safe levels, after more than 10,000 people were evacuated as the remnants of former typhoon Danas converged with East Asian monsoon rains.
1500 deaths in the recent European heatwave were due to climate change
Mon 14 Jul 2025
We now have the ability to rapidly assess the death toll of climate change after extreme heat – a first-of-its-kind analysis has shown that it nearly tripled the death toll from the most recent European heatwave
“Compliant deception”: MPs warn of oil industry greenwashing at debate on proposed fossil ad ban
Mon 14 Jul 2025
UK’s first parliamentary debate on the issue drew comparisons both with tobacco industry tactics and the industry’s now widely accepted ad ban.
Is Mark Carney turning his back on climate action?
23 Jun 2025
The G7 summit in Alberta, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, has ended with only passing mention of fighting climate change, including a statement on wildfires that is silent on the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Urbanization is intensifying India’s summer heat and rain
Fri 11 Jul 2025
When 28-year-old Sonelal Prasad left home on the morning of June 16 for his job at a construction site in Mumbai—the financial capital of India—he didn’t know he’d be digging his own grave.
Nearly a third of Tuvaluans have applied for climate migration visa
27 Jun 2025
With their country threatened by sea level rise, the people of Tuvalu have been offered an escape route through an agreement with Australia, and many are contemplating leaving their home.
The struggle for control of the Arctic is accelerating - and it's riskier than ever
Fri 11 Jul 2025
As the battle for one of the world’s coldest places heats up, an increasingly fragile security balance may be breaking down, leading to an escalating arms race.
Africa is not a solar geoengineering test site
8 Jul 2025
This potentially dangerous course of action would divert financing and support from real solutions, while putting the continent’s ecosystems and communities at risk.
Over 90 arrests made in global crackdown on environmental crime in the Amazon Basin
Mon 14 Jul 2025
Assets worth over $64 million were seized and 94 people arrested as part of a multinational law enforcement operation targeting environmental crime in the Amazon Basin.
UN Human Rights Council fails to call out fossil fuels after decision cuts mention
Fri 11 Jul 2025
A proposal by the Marshall Islands and Colombia calling for a transition away from fossil fuels at the UN Human Rights Council failed to make it into the council’s declaration on climate change and human rights issued on Tuesday.
