International: All stories
World Bank eyes longer, cheaper loans as mission expands to climate
17 Oct 2023
The World Bank president has laid out ambitious plans to widen the development lender's mission to include climate change and other global crises, speed decision-making and offer more - and cheaper - loans.
Mideast crisis could alter outcomes of upcoming UN climate summit
17 Oct 2023
The already fraught COP28 talks are facing another potential obstacle: the threat of regional Mideast instability following Hamas' terrorist attacks in Israel.
Indonesia opens carbon trading market to both skepticism and hope
17 Oct 2023
Indonesia has just launched its first carbon emissions trading market in a bid to fight climate change.
Could superpowered plants be the heroes of the climate crisis?
17 Oct 2023
Carbon-guzzling trees and crops, genetically altered to boost photosynthesis and store carbon in the roots, could absorb millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Climate change isn’t just about emissions. We’re ignoring a huge part of the fight.
17 Oct 2023
Last month, we heard yet again about the need to stop global warming at about 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre industrial levels.
Scientists disagree about drivers of September’s global temperature spike, but it has most of them worried
17 Oct 2023
The month’s shocking surge is likely to make 2023 the hottest year on record and drive extreme impact around the globe. It could also be a harbinger of even higher temperatures next year.
WMO report finds human activity disrupting water cycle
16 Oct 2023
According to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the planet’s hydrological cycle is “spinning out of balance” due to human activity and climate change.
Doctors aiming to shrink health care's massive carbon footprint
16 Oct 2023
Inside an operating room at Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Noe Woods stands in her blue scrubs next to a black operating table.
Extreme heat is taking a toll in this Florida bay
16 Oct 2023
After enduring record summer ocean temperatures, anemones, sponges, and jellyfish throughout the Florida Everglades are showing signs of bleaching.
Shipping food is dirty business. Can sailboats fix it?
16 Oct 2023
Some businesses are betting that bringing back sails could lower the carbon footprint of shipping food around the world.
UK poet laureate on 'life-changing' visit to the Arctic
16 Oct 2023
After a "life-changing" visit to the Arctic, poet laureate Simon Armitage says poets can convey what's happening with climate change in a way that scientists and journalists can't.
World "less likely than ever" to meet Paris Agreement goal: new analysis
13 Oct 2023
New analysis finds that holding temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels — the Paris Agreement's stretch goal — is "less likely than ever" despite rapid low-emissions energy expansion.
Here’s what’s driving the record autumn heat (it’s not just carbon emissions)
13 Oct 2023
Climate scientists have detected a striking jump in global temperatures during 2023. September was 1.75°C above Earth’s pre-industrial average temperature and a whole half-degree celsius warmer than the previous hottest September.
Carbon capture pipeline rendered obsolete by carbon-sucking concrete
13 Oct 2023
The US Department of Energy bets $2 million on a new carbon capture strategy that transforms ordinary buildings into CO2-devouring demons.
World Bank targets dirty subsidies to fund climate action
13 Oct 2023
The World Bank says it will try to get governments to stop spending public money making fossil fuels artificially cheap.
How criminalisation is being used to silence climate activists across the world
13 Oct 2023
An investigation finds a growing number of countries are passing anti-protest laws as a tactic to intimidate people peacefully raising the alarm.
Tree plantations can offset carbon pollution - but there's a problem
13 Oct 2023
Viewing trees as industrial or climate assets isn't the full picture of their value.
Tokyo Stock Exchange begins trade in carbon credits
12 Oct 2023
Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange started trading carbon credits on Wednesday, as the world's fifth-largest carbon dioxide emitter put in place a key element of its strategy to tackle climate change.
A court among the coconut palms: when justice came to visit the Torres Strait
12 Oct 2023
The world’s first climate change class action has seen Australia’s federal court head north to hear arguments on the frontline.
Climate change main culprit for hot South American winter
12 Oct 2023
A wave of unusually extreme heat at the end of South America's winter was made 100 times more likely by climate change, according to a study published.
Five key extinction risks facing the world’s plants and fungi
12 Oct 2023
Scientists’ understanding of how climate change and habitat loss could drive plant and fungi extinctions is being hamstrung by knowledge gaps in how many species currently exist, a new report warns.
Dense micro-forests are thriving in France
12 Oct 2023
Developed by a Japanese botanist, the Miyawaki method of reforestation has taken root in a wide range of landscapes.
Microplastics pose risk to ocean plankton, climate, other key Earth systems
12 Oct 2023
Small plastic particles are impossible to remove from the oceans with current technology, so stopping pollution is a priority.
Climate crisis costing $16m an hour in extreme weather damage, study estimates
11 Oct 2023
Analysis shows at least $2.8tn in damage from 2000 to 2019 through worsened storms, floods and heatwaves.
Billions could face lethal heat this century if climate change worsens
11 Oct 2023
New research found humid heat will afflict major cities as it's "coming up in places that we didn't think about before", highlighting rising risk in Australia and South America.
How will the next decade of China’s ‘belt and road initiative’ impact climate action?
11 Oct 2023
Later this month, China will mark the 10th anniversary of the “belt and road initiative” (BRI), its global infrastructure project, at a major international conference in Beijing.
How the tiny island city-state of Singapore fights rising sea levels
11 Oct 2023
During a half-century of independence, Singapore has fought to expand its territory, inch by hard-won inch.
Emissions from UK residents and businesses rose by 2% in 2022, figures suggest
11 Oct 2023
Residence-based emissions stood at 512 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022 , according to Office for National Statistics provisional data.
Climate change could soon affect the taste of beer, new study says
11 Oct 2023
Beer lovers beware: Climate change could soon make the world's most popular alcoholic drink much more bitter.
World breaches key 1.5C warming mark for record number of days
10 Oct 2023
The world is breaching a key warming threshold at a rate that has scientists concerned.
‘I wasn’t the obvious choice’: meet the oil man tasked with saving the planet
10 Oct 2023
When COP28 starts next month, Sultan Al Jaber will be front and centre. He is the United Arab Emirates’ choice to head up the climate talks – and he also happens to be head of the national oil company. What’s the problem with that, he asks.
Australia’s compromised climate negotiators
10 Oct 2023
Sitting in a bar in Manhattan recently, there for Climate Week NYC and the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, I watched as Australians from both government and the private sector worked the room.
How broken are corporate carbon pledges?
10 Oct 2023
Fortune 500 companies are responsible for nearly a third of all greenhouse gas emissions—and many of them would like you to think they’re doing their best to shrink that.
Peace has not stopped Afghanistan’s depopulation
10 Oct 2023
Climate change is bringing about more devastation, forcing more Afghans to flee. Deportations from neighbouring countries will not stop them.
Africa’s first carbon-removal plant stokes questions about responsible climate solutions
10 Oct 2023
A joint venture between Swiss and Kenya-based companies has been billed as a springboard for creating a new, green economy in Africa.
Shortfall in climate change cash grows ahead of COP28
9 Oct 2023
The United Nations' main fund for helping vulnerable countries cope with climate change said on Thursday it had raised $9.3 billion, falling short of a $10 billion target after wealthy nations, including the United States, failed to pay in.
Environmental groups sue energy company over 'devastating' East Africa oil pipeline
9 Oct 2023
Four environmental groups have filed a law suit against the French group TotalEnergies and its EACOP oil project in Tanzania and Uganda.
‘Personal carbon allowances’ could restrict how often you travel
9 Oct 2023
A report by a travel company says the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat, and we need to stop treating it like one.
Attacks on net zero at UK Conservative Party conference alarm green-leaning MPs
9 Oct 2023
Green credentials used to be considered a vote-winner but rhetoric around net zero has changed.
Amphibians are in widespread decline, and climate change is to blame, study says
9 Oct 2023
A major class of vertebrate species is experiencing widespread population declines due to climate change, according to new research.
Looking for hope on the climate? Look here.
9 Oct 2023
After a summer of climate-related disasters, the latest report from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is a dire warning for the world.
World’s electricity supply close to ‘peak emissions’ due to growth of wind and solar
6 Oct 2023
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the global power sector grew just 0.2% in the first six months of 2023, with rapidly rising wind and solar outpacing sluggish demand growth.
Amazon rainforest at risk of a large-scale dieback
6 Oct 2023
The impacts of global warming, deforestation and intensified land use are pushing the South American monsoon towards a critical destabilisation point.
Pope Francis calls for rapid decarbonization, ‘abandonment of fossil fuels’
6 Oct 2023
The pontiff's latest decree urges Western countries to do more to avert climate disaster.
Glacial lake bursts in India leaving 100 missing and 14 dead
6 Oct 2023
More than 100 people are missing in India’s northeast after heavy rain caused a glacial lake to burst, leading to flash floods which ripped through the Himalayan state of Sikkim.
Ancient carbon in rocks releases as much carbon dioxide as world's volcanoes
6 Oct 2023
A new study has overturned the view that natural rock weathering acts as a CO2 sink, indicating instead that this can also act as a large CO2 source, rivalling that of volcanoes.
Airlines are being hit by anti-greenwashing litigation
6 Oct 2023
A wave of anti-“greenwashing” litigation is seeking to hold major players in the aviation industry to account for sensational claims of being sustainable, low-carbon or contributing to net zero.
Broken zipper? France will pay to get it fixed.
5 Oct 2023
Cheap, disposable clothing is causing an environmental disaster. Now, the home of haute couture is chipping in for its citizens’ garment repairs.
Ivory Coast deforestation rate rises as EU green imports law looms
5 Oct 2023
Deforestation in top cocoa producer Ivory Coast increased last year after declining for several years, a major report has found, raising questions about how the country will comply with a new EU law preventing commodity imports linked to forest loss.
Climate leaders gather in Spain before ‘challenging’ COP28
5 Oct 2023
Energy ministers and climate leaders from around the world gather in Madrid before the next month’s climate summit.
No room for the timid: setting Australia’s 2035 emissions target is a daring tightrope act
Tue 26 Aug 2025
Any week now, Australia will set its 2035 emissions target. It must signal the nation’s strong ambition on climate action, to drive policy and investment. And it must avoid being seen as either unrealistic or too costly.
California is backsliding on climate progress. It’s (mostly) Gavin Newsom’s fault
Tue 26 Aug 2025
The California Supreme Court just gave state officials a golden opportunity to revitalize the rooftop solar industry, helping millions of homes and businesses lower their electric bills and fight the climate crisis.
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?
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
20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
