International: All stories
Can Southern Africa grow without fossil fuels?
25 Aug 2022
If current trends in the energy system continue, wind and solar will outcompete other power sources on cost and rapidly come to dominate the electrical grid in Southern Africa, according to a new study.
Peru's capital Lima backs Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
25 Aug 2022
City lawmakers in Lima, Peru on Monday unanimously passed a motion calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a proposed global mechanism for tackling the source of most of the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the climate emergency.
Inflation Reduction Act could curb climate damages by up to $1.9 trillion, White House says
25 Aug 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act, the most aggressive climate investment ever taken by Congress, could cut the social costs of climate change by up to $1.9 trillion by 2050, the White House says.
Should schools teach climate change studies? These countries think so
25 Aug 2022
A study from a British university reveals that more than half of young people experience climate anxiety on a daily basis.
Can Denmark save every smørrebrød?
25 Aug 2022
As the country that wastes the most food in Europe, Denmark is turning to apps that help shoppers grab groceries just before they end up in the trash.
China's unprecedented 70-day heatwave is breaking multiple records
24 Aug 2022
China's more than two-month long heatwave has dried up as many as 66 rivers, including the critical Yangtze River, the world's third longest waterway.
Europe hit by worst drought in at least 500 years as climate change fears grow
24 Aug 2022
Europe is in the grip of its worst drought in at least 500 years, experts warned on Tuesday as fears grew over climate change.
Why climate change is Africa’s biggest ‘existential challenge’
24 Aug 2022
Climate change is the biggest “existential challenge” to Africa’s development and is eroding many of its development gains, according to the African Development Bank.
Flooding wetlands could be the next big carbon capture hack
24 Aug 2022
Arriving at the tidal wetlands of Mungalla Station on the coastline of northern Queensland, ornithologist Simon Kennedy from the not-for-profit BirdLife Australia is greeted by a welcome cacophony. “You start hearing honks and quacks and twitters and noises coming from there,” he says of the area’s diverse and thriving bird populations, “whereas it’s very quiet elsewhere.”
Covid and climate change pose similar behavioural challenges
24 Aug 2022
Climate-change activists should take some lessons from the mismanagement and miscommunication around the covid pandemic. In both cases, people across the political spectrum feel helpless in the face of the problem. In both cases, experts need to figure out how to get people to overcome these feelings and act.
Canadian farmers push back against fertiliser emissions target
24 Aug 2022
As part of Canada’s net-zero target, the country is seeking to significantly cut the emissions from fertilizers, a move that is seeing pushback from the agriculture industry.
‘Climate change to impact 2 billion people’
23 Aug 2022
An irreversible decline in freshwater storage projected in parts of Asia due to climate change could impact 2 billion people living downstream of the Tibetan Plateau as it could pose a serious threat to water supplies to India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan by mid-century, according to the satellite-based assessment of water changes in Tibetan Plateau.
Australia’s biggest listed solar company to be wound up after selling US portfolio
23 Aug 2022
New Energy Solar, the biggest listed solar investor in Australia, is to be wound up after agreeing to sell its remaining portfolio of 14 US solar farms to a company run by US investment bank giant Goldman Sachs.
Spain PM warns of climate emergency as country records hottest summer ever
23 Aug 2022
Spain is facing a climate emergency as it experiences the hottest summer ever recorded, prime minister Pedro Sanchez warned yesterday.
Here’s what you get if you ask airlines what they can do about the climate crisis
23 Aug 2022
Last year, the UK government’s own climate change advisers, the Climate Change Committee, said that demand for flying must fall if the UK is to meet its climate commitments.
The big firms snapping up Scottish carbon credits
23 Aug 2022
Weapons manufacturers, the oil giant Shell, and financial institutions which poured billions of pounds into fossil fuels are among firms buying Scottish carbon credits, prompting critics to claim the country is experiencing an era of “rampant carbon capitalism”.
EU carbon price hits record
22 Aug 2022
The price of carbon in the EU’s emissions trading system hit a new all-time high on Friday, August 19, as traders warned coal was becoming “re-embedded” in Europe’s electricity generation because of tight supplies of gas.
Newest cause for climate optimism? The U.S. rivalry with China
22 Aug 2022
A clean energy arms race between the U.S. and China — the world’s two superpowers and largest greenhouse gas emitters — has been the dream of climate advocates for decades.
How a humpback whale superhighway is offering warnings about climate change
22 Aug 2022
During winter Australia's east coast becomes a migratory superhighway for humpback whales, a so-called "blue corridor".
“This is total, total greenwash”: Santos claims massive Alaska oil project will be carbon neutral
22 Aug 2022
Last week, at the same time as reporting a huge profit windfall, Australian gas giant Santos gave the final investment green light to its $US2.6 billion ($A3.7 billion) Pikka oil venture off the coast of Alaska, citing a need to boost global energy supplies amid the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kansas made transit safer by making it free
22 Aug 2022
Kansas City, Missouri, made national headlines in the fall of 2019 when its city council voted unanimously to become America’s first large city to make public transportation free citywide. Now, two and a half years later, anyone living anywhere in the city can ride buses without paying a fare.
How this Dutch design convinces residents to swap car parking for bike racks
22 Aug 2022
A parking spot for a single car can hold as many as 10 bikes—but it’s often a challenge for a city to convince drivers that it’s okay to relinquish car parking space for other uses (witness battles that often ensue when cities add bike lanes next to curbs).
Australia may be heading for emissions trading between big polluters
19 Aug 2022
Could Australia soon have a form of emissions trading? Yes, if Labor's much-anticipated paper on fixing Australia's mediocre emissions-reduction framework, released yesterday, is any guide.
China, US spar over climate on Twitter
19 Aug 2022
The world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are sparring on Twitter over climate policy, with China questioning whether the U.S. can deliver on the landmark climate legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden this week.
Amid severe weather, poll finds fewer Americans are concerned about climate change
19 Aug 2022
A new survey conducted by the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center shows 35% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about how climate change will impact the
Leaving the island: The messy, contentious reality of climate relocation
19 Aug 2022
ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, Louisiana — A sliver is all of this islet that remains above water. What hasn’t slipped into the Gulf of Mexico shows the punishing effects of disastrous climate change: trees killed by saltwater, grasslands overtaken by bayous, empty wrecks that were once homes.
Organic dairy farming can store carbon and reduce GHG emissions: study
19 Aug 2022
A new study in the August issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production reveals that it is possible for farms to sequester carbon and reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions. A University of Wisconsin Madison research group unveiled a dairy lifecycle assessment conducted on Organic Valley farms that shows small organic dairy farms, which focus on grazing and organic production techniques, are low greenhouse gas champions.
How climate change threatens Kashmir's crucial apple industry
19 Aug 2022
As Indian-administered Kashmir continues to witness abnormally high temperatures, apple growers fear that climate change will wipe out the region's orchards — which produce 80% of India's apples.
“More emissions than coal:” Pressure mounts on Australia to rule out forest biomass
18 Aug 2022
Pressure is mounting on the Australian government to rule out the use of native forest biomass for renewable energy generation – particularly as a replacement for coal in ageing coal generators – with one green group arguing that it “fails even the most basic common sense test.”
'Staggering' rate of global tree losses from fires
18 Aug 2022
Around 16 football pitches of trees per minute were lost to forest fires in 2021, a new report says.
India bares new climate goals amid coal dependency woes
18 Aug 2022
India has gotten its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) approved by the Cabinet. This will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). NDCs, which are long-term voluntary commitments made by countries signatory to the Paris Agreement, make up a global effort to reduce emissions and global warming.
Climate-resilient breadfruit might be the food of the future
18 Aug 2022
In the face of climate change, breadfruit soon might come to a dinner plate near you.
Ireland, Malta and Bulgaria see big increases in GHG emissions
18 Aug 2022
Ireland’s greenhouse gas - GHG - emissions increased by 20% in Q1 2022 compared with a year earlier, according to estimates from Eurostat.
Influential oil company climate scenarios don’t meet Paris Agreement goals: new analysis shows
17 Aug 2022
Several major oil companies, including BP and Shell, periodically publish scenarios forecasting the future of the energy sector. In recent years, they have added visions for how climate change might be addressed, including scenarios that they claim are consistent with the international Paris climate agreement.
Climate-related drought and flooding in Ethiopia
17 Aug 2022
One part of Ethiopia is facing the worst drought in four decades and another is hit by flooding. Millions of people are at risk as climate change causes too much and too little rain.
European forest fires further increasing the world’s climate footprint
17 Aug 2022
The multiple forest fires that have been raging in France since the beginning of summer have released record amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, according to satellite data, and fires in Spain in mid-July also helped break records for carbon emissions. Fuelled by global warming, the blazes are reducing the number of trees available to absorb carbon, further threatening ecosystems.
US investment giant BlackRock in $1 billion big battery play in Australia
17 Aug 2022
US investment giant BlackRock is planning to invest at least $1 billion in big battery projects in Australia after agreeing to buy out Melbourne-based Akaysha Energy and its portfolio of at least nine projects in the country’s main grid.
Tel Aviv has shade down to a science
17 Aug 2022
Along the tree-lined sidewalks of Tel Aviv’s Atidim Park, a business and commercial district in the north of the city, a curious new addition to the urban canopy arrived a few months ago.
EU-New Zealand agreement raises the bar on climate action in trade deals: analysis
16 Aug 2022
The EU-New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) – announced in early July – is the first of its kind to include legally enforceable commitments on climate measures, as well as gender equality and environment and labour standards
Carbon market could offset Australia’s huge fire recovery bill
16 Aug 2022
\Australian scientists have put a dollar figure on the cost of recovery and restoration of native flora and fauna after the 2019-2020 summer bushfires.
Massachusetts’ Republican governor signs far-reaching climate bill into law
16 Aug 2022
Massachusetts’ Republican governor, Charlie Baker, signed a sweeping climate and energy bill into law last week, approving an array of policies intended to advance the state’s goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
This climate action tracker shows what we’re doing right - and wrong - on the road to net-zero emissions
16 Aug 2022
Is the world making progress on tackling climate change? Or is it stalling?
As stronger storms hit Bangladesh farmers, banks are climate collateral damage
16 Aug 2022
Wasim Ali, 45, lived in one of the 55,000 houses destroyed by the deadly Super Cyclone Amphan in May of 2020. The tropical storm whipped up a tidal surge that swept away his house and razed his small farm, measuring just 0.4 hectares (1 acre). Thousands of people were left destitute after this massive natural disaster. But for Wasim Ali, a resident of Protapnagar in Bangladesh’s southwestern Satkhira district, the misery runs deeper.
Norway's climate choice: old oil, gas fields switch to green power or close early
16 Aug 2022
Norway will have to phase out some of its old oil and gas fields prematurely to achieve its 2030 climate goals, unless it can use carbon-free power on more offshore platforms to cut their emissions, the country's Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide said.
US commitment to Pacific island climate action far from ironclad: A Chinese view
16 Aug 2022
As US President Joe Biden is set to host leaders of Pacific island countries at the White House in September, island nations will be watching how seriously his administration takes their calls for help to combat climate change, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Sunday, citing analysts.
Democrats jettison carbon pricing in favor of incentives to counter climate change
15 Aug 2022
The US's first comprehensive climate law, expected to be sealed with a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday, will not look anything like the program imagined by either climate economists or those in Washington and the environmental movement who had faith in bipartisan action
‘Ventilation corridors’ funnel cool mountain air into steamy Stuttgart
15 Aug 2022
To travel through Stuttgart is to visit past sins and glimpse a promising future. This German manufacturing hub is where the gas-powered automobile was invented in 1886. Porsche and Mercedes still manufacture their luxury cars here, and these companies’ local museums celebrate a time when the chrome curves of sports cars symbolized speed instead of a climate crisis.
Australia calls for US-China to keep climate talks ‘ring-fenced’ from Taiwan tensions
15 Aug 2022
Australian Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has called for China and the United States to resume climate talks despite rising tensions between the countries over the status of Taiwan.
French climate activists fill golf course holes with cement, protesting against water ban exemption amid drought
15 Aug 2022
Climate activists in the south of France have damaged lawns and filled golf course holes with cement, protesting against golf courses' exemption from water bans as the country faces its most severe drought in history.
Close to 50 Fijian villages need relocation due to climate change
15 Aug 2022
An estimated 116 sea walls will need to be constructed to protect around 160 Fijian communities from the drastic effects of climate change.
Making polluters pay could fix Australia’s climate problem – and its budget
Wed 4 Feb 2026
A new report shows how making polluters pay will not only diminish the threat from climate change, but it can also help restore the budget and the economy.
U.S. could issue general license for oil companies to produce in Venezuela this week
Thu 5 Feb 2026
The Trump administration could issue a general license as soon as this week for companies to produce oil and gas in Venezuela, a person familiar with the plan told CNBC on Tuesday.
‘Rush’ for new coal in China hits record high in 2025 as climate deadline looms
Wed 4 Feb 2026
Proposals to build coal-fired plants in China reached a record high in 2025, finds a new study.
EU adopts first-ever standard for carbon removal projects
Wed 4 Feb 2026
The European Commission announced the adoption of its first set of voluntary certification methodologies for permanent carbon removals, aimed at providing clear standards for carbon removal technologies, to enable certification and investment in projects that permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
A UK climate security report backed by the intelligence services was quietly buried – a pattern we’ve seen many times before
Thu 5 Feb 2026
Last autumn, a UK government report warned that climate-driven ecosystem collapse could lead to food shortages, mass migration, political extremism and even nuclear conflict. The report was never officially launched.
The climate and energy implication hidden in Mark Carney’s Davos speech
26 Jan 2026
In a speech bound for the history books, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described a “rupture” in the world order and called for middle powers like Canada to stand up to bullies.
Declared a terrorist for bringing renewable power to Philippine communities
Mon 2 Feb 2026
Accusing activists of having links to terrorism has led to non-profit funds being frozen and local climate projects being delayed or scrapped.
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore and seabirds
19 Dec 2025
Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
18 Dec 2025
Region known as ‘world’s refrigerator’ is heating up as much as four times as quickly as global average, Noaa experts say.
Climate change could lead to 500,000 ‘additional’ malaria deaths in Africa by 2050
30 Jan 2026
Climate change could lead to half a million more deaths from malaria in Africa over the next 25 years, according to new research.
Argentina fires ravage pristine Patagonia forests, fueling criticism of Milei’s austerity
Wed 4 Feb 2026
The wildfires, among the worst to hit the drought-stricken Patagonia region in decades, have devastated more than 45,000 hectares (174 square miles) of Argentina’s forests in the last month and a half, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists.
UN risks 'imminent financial collapse', secretary general warns
Tue 3 Feb 2026
The United Nations is at risk of "imminent financial collapse" due to member states not paying their fees, the body's head has warned.
