International: All stories

Expert commission proposes gas price relief of 90 billion euros by 2024 for German consumers

12 Oct 2022

A group of experts charged by the German government to come up with a plan on how to ease the impact of rising gas prices has proposed to support citizens and businesses with a total of about 90 billion euros by 2024.

London stock exchange launches its voluntary carbon market rules

12 Oct 2022

After nearly a year since first announcing that it would be developing a new market solution to accelerate the availability of financing for projects that will support a just transition to a low-carbon economy, the London Stock Exchange has launched its public market framework.

Why airline carbon offsets are mostly a sham

12 Oct 2022

The global aviation industry, a major contributor to greenhouse gases, is aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But the “net” in that commitment is misleading consumers and creating legal risks for airline companies, a new study has found.

Cities around the world offered chance to win $1m to build cycle lanes

12 Oct 2022

Cities around the world will have the chance to compete for $1m (£902,000) in funding as well as expertise to build new cycling infrastructure under a plan launched by the charitable foundation set up by Mike Bloomberg, who as New York mayor pioneered new bike lanes in the city.

Future heatwaves will lead to large ‘loss of life’, report warns

11 Oct 2022

Heatwaves will become so extreme in parts of Africa and Asia within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, a new report by the United Nations and the Red Cross has warned.

Carbon credits key to industrial emissions in Australia

11 Oct 2022

Proposed laws to reward Australia's biggest greenhouse gas emitters for reducing pollution will be introduced to parliament next month to support ambitious national targets.

African countries redefine energy transition, urge more fossil fuel investments ahead of climate negotiations

11 Oct 2022

High-ranking officials in the African Union as well as energy ministers from several African countries have used the Africa Oil Week and Green Energy Africa summit this week to call for more fossil fuel investments and greater energy access ahead of UN climate negotiations to be held in Egypt next month.

The return of Aztec floating farms

11 Oct 2022

In Mexico City, a 700-year-old Aztec farming technique is giving a sustainable edge to modern agriculture. Chinampas, or "floating gardens", are ancient engineering wonders. These man-made island-farms are the last vestiges of a massive 14th-Century land reclamation project of the Aztec Empire that continues to feed the people of Mexico City even today.

Methane blowout craters in Siberia are ‘canary in a coal mine for global climate’

11 Oct 2022

Gases released from methane craters on Siberia's Yamal and Gydan peninsulas as well as the immense amounts of carbon dioxide released from wildfires in the region can accelerate global warming, experts have warned.

World Bank chief says he will keep 'intense' focus on efforts to address climate change

10 Oct 2022

World Bank president David Malpass has said that he is keeping an "intense" focus on the bank's efforts to address climate change and embracing the US Treasury's call to dramatically boost lending capacity to address this and other global problems.

Climate alliance denies Wall Street banks are threatening to quit

10 Oct 2022

The world’s biggest climate-finance alliance has sought to dismiss reports that a number of Wall Street banks are threatening to leave, as it races to bring its house in order in the run-up to next month’s COP27 climate summit.

Europeans are hoarding wood, cleaning chimneys, and mulling horse dung as winter looms in an energy crisis

10 Oct 2022

As much as 70% of European heating comes from natural gas and electricity, and with Russian deliveries drastically reduced, wood — already used by some 40 million people for heating — has become a sought-after commodity.

Permafrost slumps spew carbon into streams, study shows

10 Oct 2022

Streams affected by permafrost slumps carry substantially more carbon than typically found in other streams flowing through permafrost landscapes, according to a new study.

Gujarat: Modhera to be declared first solar-powered village by PM

10 Oct 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will declare Modhera in Mehsana as the country’s first round-the-clock solar-powered village on October 9 during his three-day visit to Gujarat, stated an official release.

French Nobel Winner urges inflation, climate protest against Macron

10 Oct 2022

French author Annie Ernaux, who was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize this week, signed an open letter on Sunday supporting a mass protest against President Emmanuel Macron called by the country's left-wing opposition.

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine specie

7 Oct 2022

By Daniel G. Boyce - The Conversation | Climate change impacts marine life through a bewildering web of complex pathways.

Climate change will displace millions of people - do we need to rethink attitudes to mass migration?

7 Oct 2022

Mass migration towards the Earth’s poles will help humanity survive the climate crisis, according to a new book.

Climate change made 2022’s northern-hemisphere droughts ‘at least 20 times’ more likely

7 Oct 2022

The droughts seen across the northern hemisphere this summer were made “at least 20 times more likely” by human-caused climate change, according to a new “rapid-attribution” study.

Countries back rewritten EU plan to raise carbon market cash

7 Oct 2022

European Union countries on Tuesday agreed an alternative to an EU plan to use a carbon market reserve to help finance their exit from Russian gas, after fears the original proposal would undermine the bloc’s main climate change policy.

E-fuels will undermine Europe’s clean car race, if we let them

7 Oct 2022

To decarbonise Europe’s car fleet, internal combustion engines (ICEs) running on synthetic fuels are not a viable alternative to electric cars.

Our solar powered future is already China’s reality

6 Oct 2022

Atop the Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province, northern China, sits the Longyangxia Dam facility, a 27-square-kilometer solar farm that is filled with a sea of four million deep blue-colored photovoltaic panels.

EVs add to electricity demand, but not as much as you might think

6 Oct 2022

California recently asked homeowners to reduce electricity consumption to help avoid blackouts as temperatures soared and the power system struggled to keep up. This specific brush with near-disaster had a new element that caught a lot of attention: a call to electric vehicle owners to avoid charging during peak demand hours.

How to ensure the world’s largest pumped-hydro project isn’t a disaster for the environment

6 Oct 2022

Queensland’s ambitious new plan involves shifting from a coal-dominated electricity grid to 80% renewables within 13 years, using 22 gigawatts of new wind and solar.

Ships release invisible contrails that slightly cool the climate

6 Oct 2022

Streaks of invisible air pollution from the world’s shipping industry, which are unseen on satellite imagery, are changing the reflectivity of clouds. This means clouds exposed to air pollution may reflect more of the sun’s light and heat than we thought, which will have to be taken into account for future climate models.

Climate reparations may be ethical, but they aren’t the best fix, climatologist says

6 Oct 2022

Calls for climate reparations for poorer countries hit hard by climate change are growing louder after catastrophic floods in Pakistan. But though they may be ethical, they aren’t the best solution to a complex problem, one climatologist said.

Almost 200 nations are set to tackle climate change at COP27 in Egypt. Is this just a talkfest, or does the meeting actually matter?

6 Oct 2022

By Matt McDonald - The Conversation |In a crucial meeting for tackling the climate crisis, almost 200 countries will come together in Egypt at the start of November for a “Conference of the Parties”, or COP27.

New Brazilian Congress not likely to address climate

5 Oct 2022

Brazil has a major role to play in addressing climate change as home to the world’s largest rainforest, but after Sunday’s election, the subject is less likely to come up than ever.

Wind, solar investors threaten to leave Europe because of revenue cap

5 Oct 2022

European wind and solar power industries associations warned that investments could go elsewhere after EU energy ministers voted to introduce revenue caps for wind, solar, nuclear and coal power generation.

China’s climate push could spawn new global players, even if Beijing falls short on its pledge

5 Oct 2022

Two years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping formally announced the world’s second largest economy would strive for peak carbon emissions in 2030, and carbon neutrality in 2060. These ambitions are spawning companies that could one day become global leaders in their fields.

WA project looks to produce ‘carbon-neutral gold’ with 13 MW solar, wind, battery hybrid solution

5 Oct 2022

Australian gold miner Bellevue Gold has entered an agreement with distributed energy provider Energy Developments Pty Ltd (EDL) for an off-grid solar, wind and battery hybrid power station for the flagship project it is developing in central Western Australia.

Vatican unveils new documentary on climate change

5 Oct 2022

A new documentary by filmmaker Nicolas Brown “highlights the key concept of dialogue,” Cardinal Michael Czerny explained on Tuesday, at the presentation of the film “The Letter” at the Holy See Press Office.

Carbon dioxide price surge 'could add £1.7bn to cost of UK groceries'

4 Oct 2022

The surging cost of carbon dioxide could add £1.7 billion to the cost of British groceries, according to new analysis. Research by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) suggests that the UK’s food and drink sector could end up footing the mammoth extra bill for liquid CO2 if gas prices remain high.

Gas production costs in Queensland's Lake Eyre Basin will be 'staggering', report claims

4 Oct 2022

Gas exploration projects in Queensland's Channel Country will be expensive to produce, generate "significant" carbon emissions and are likely to be abandoned, a report has found.

UN standard-setters turn their attention to carbon removal

4 Oct 2022

The spotlight on carbon removal is getting brighter. UN standard-setters have begun a crucial process to lay the groundwork for removals under the Paris Agreement. This has gone largely unnoticed by the carbon removal community, which has been mainly focusing on the voluntary carbon market.

Energy windfall tax offers much better economic relief than petrol excise, study finds

4 Oct 2022

As pressure mounts on the Albanese government to tax the super profits of oil and gas companies, a new Australian study says this kind of levy would be much more effective in delivering relief from high energy prices than a discount on petrol prices.

Global Innovation Co-op Summit explores co-op solutions to global challenges

4 Oct 2022

What can co-ops do to address global challenges such as climate change, digitisation or inequality? The Global Innovation Co-op Summit in Paris (25-26 September) suggested many co-operative solutions while showcasing best practices from various sectors.

A Nord Stream disaster every day

4 Oct 2022

A half-mile wide maelstrom is swirling in the Baltic Sea as an estimated 300,000 metric tons of gas violently erupts from the sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines. Most of this gas is likely methane, a gas normally invisible to the eye that is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 20 years. The swirling froth recalls Hurricane Ian, another catastrophe that’s just devastated Florida.

Melbourne considering zero-carbon building rules

3 Oct 2022

A recent proposal suggests around 77 of the Melbourne CBD’s buildings would need to be “retrofitted” each year if the city is to meet its net-zero carbon emissions goals for 2040. The paper is being considered by the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee this week.

Climate change is a class issue

3 Oct 2022

By Max Lawson - head of inequality Oxfam |As Europe is crippled by high gas and energy prices this winter, there are some who have been saying that this is an opportunity to speed a green transition, a kind of shock treatment to get us all somehow ‘used’ to high energy prices and forced to consume less.

The US ban on hydrofluorocarbons is a climate game-changer

3 Oct 2022

A lot of climate change-fighting strategies focus on removing air pollutants, or preventing them from reaching the atmosphere at all. While pretty much everybody these days can recognize carbon dioxide and methane as two of them, the US just joined around 130 other nations to take a big step in knocking out a third: hydrofluorocarbons, also known as HFCs.

‘South Asia, Himalayan region witness 40% of all climate disasters’

3 Oct 2022

The world’s largest carbon removal project will break ground in Wyoming

3 Oct 2022

A pair of climate tech companies is set to break ground on what will become the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project to help industries meet their net-zero goals and slow down the Earth’s rapidly warming climate.

Nord Stream pipeline leaks are ‘catastrophic for the climate’

30 Sep 2022

Methane leaking from yet-to-be explained damage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines is likely to be the biggest burst of the potent greenhouse gas on record, raising new fears of the effect on the climate emergency.

The climate crisis is making the pacific islands uninhabitable. Who will help preserve our Nations?

30 Sep 2022

The climate crisis is creating an increasingly uncertain future for people in most parts of the world. Paradoxically in the Pacific, it is making the future increasingly certain—but not in a way that gives any kind of comfort.

Hurricane Ian: When the power grid goes out, could solar and batteries power your home?

30 Sep 2022

Hurricane Ian’s catastrophic winds and flooding are likely to bring long-lasting power outages to large parts of Florida. The storm is the latest in a line of hurricanes and extreme heat and cold events that have knocked out power to millions of Americans in recent years for days at a time.

As carbon dioxide grows more abundant, trees are growing bigger, study finds

30 Sep 2022

Trees are feasting on decades of carbon dioxide emissions and growing bigger as a result, according to a new study of U.S. forests.

COP27: Why is addressing ‘loss and damage’ crucial for climate justice?

30 Sep 2022

The death and destruction that can result from climate change is not evenly distributed around the world

Rising interest rates only a mild snag in climate battle

29 Sep 2022

Rising interest rates present no significant barrier to the world's transition to net zero emissions by 2050 despite the high levels of investment in green energy needed, according to a strong majority of climate economists polled by Reuters.

Queensland plans “supergrid” and world’s biggest pumped hydro

29 Sep 2022

The Queensland government’s new 10-year energy and jobs plan includes plans for 22GW of new wind and solar, and 11.5GW of rooftop solar, and also includes a new “super grid” and what it says will be the biggest pumped hydro project in the world.

How the EU's new energy plans impact Southeast Asia

29 Sep 2022

As European countries turn to energy suppliers in Southeast Asia, driving up global prices, there are concerns that other developing countries are being forced to spend more on increasingly expensive liquified natural gas or coal.