International: All stories

Wales' first net carbon zero school and how it works
14 Mar 2022
At first glance it looks like any other new build primary, but South Point Primary in Rhoose is radically different to all other schools in Wales.

How climate change is disrupting the global supply chain
11 Mar 2022
The Covid pandemic has rightly received most of the blame for global supply chain upheavals in the last two years. But the less publicized threat to supply chains from climate change poses a far more serious threat and is already being felt, scholars and experts say.

Solomon Islands receives first carbon credit as part of conservation work
11 Mar 2022
A tribe in the Solomon Islands has become the first in the country to receive a carbon credit.

Ten climate-resilient homes that have adapted to the realities of global warming
11 Mar 2022
From a hurricane-proof house in Puerto Rico to a floating villa with retractable stilts, Dezeen has rounded up ten homes that incorporate the climate change-resilience strategies set out in the latest IPCC report.

UN climate change negotiating bloc rejects Russia, condemning its invasion of Ukraine
11 Mar 2022
As the international community seeks to cut off Russia from the global economy, there are moves to isolate Moscow diplomatically in the climate space.

Urgent action needed in aviation sector to keep 1.5 degrees within reach: Climate Action 100+
11 Mar 2022
Climate Action 100+, the world’s largest investor engagement initiative on climate change, has today released a report setting out how the aviation industry can align with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero by 2050 or 1.5°C scenario, and the actions investors need to take to accelerate the sector’s transition to net zero.

Ukraine invasion crashes carbon credit prices
11 Mar 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine roiled financial markets across the world, and the European carbon credit market was no exception. As the price of oil surged, carbon credit prices plummeted.

Carbon dioxide will have to be removed from air to achieve 1.5C: report
10 Mar 2022
Removing carbon dioxide from the air will now be essential if there is to be any chance of meeting global climate targets, a thinktank has warned.

Carbon removal factory
10 Mar 2022
In September, Climeworks flipped the switch on Orca, the largest plant to date that is designed to remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Fighting climate change in court: Reporting on cases against governments
10 Mar 2022
Several headline-grabbing victories for environmentalists have drawn the world's attention to the effectiveness of litigation as a tool for holding governments and companies to account for their carbon emissions. With increasing numbers of activists and litigants exploring innovative ways to mount legal cases, the momentum of climate litigation is growing further.

‘Reimagine security’, experts urge, as military emissions and budgets grow in tandem
10 Mar 2022
Armed forces are among the largest greenhouse gas emitters anywhere, but the world’s wealthiest countries—like the United States and the European Union—exempt their militaries from emissions regulations while continuing to increase budgets to defend against the rising international security threats those emissions help trigger.

Climate action could avert close to half the world's premature deaths
10 Mar 2022
Mitigating the climate crisis, according to a global health expert, would eliminate nearly half of the world’s premature deaths.

Barcelona-style “superblocks” could make a surprising number of cities greener and less car-centric
10 Mar 2022
More than 40% of the street network in some cities is suitable for transformation similar to Barcelona-style “superblocks,” according to a new study. The findings highlight the possibilities as well as the complexities of making neighborhoods in diverse cities greener and less car-centric.
Global CO2 emissions rebounded to their highest level in history in 2021
9 Mar 2022
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 6% in 2021 to 36.3 billion tonnes, their highest ever level, as the world economy rebounded strongly from the Covid-19 crisis and relied heavily on coal to power that growth, according to new IEA analysis released today.

Forest clearing for crops in Papua may unleash massive emissions
9 Mar 2022
A plan to clear forests in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua for food crops will release as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as Australia emits in an entire year, according to a new analysis.

EU unveils plan to end reliance on Russian gas
9 Mar 2022
As countries scramble to reduce their reliance on Russia's oil and gas in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, few places are as exposed as the European Union.

How badly will Russia's war torpedo hopes for global climate cooperation?
9 Mar 2022
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the prospect of industrial nations coming together to quickly enact meaningful cuts to greenhouse gas emissions seemed slim. But with Russia blowing apart the world order, advocates for international climate action say their cause is looking ever more bleak, just as the effects of warming are looking more ominous.

Experts call for moratorium on deep-sea mining
9 Mar 2022
A troupe of environmental activists descended on Rotterdam, Netherlands, last month for an evocative demonstration. Dressed as jellyfish, sea anemones, and “fisher folk,” protestors from the advocacy group Ocean Rebellion sang songs and projected messages onto the hull of a 750-foot-long drilling ship, urging policymakers to protect the seafloor from mining companies.

Tesla is a complete climate embarrassment: report
9 Mar 2022
A new report grades companies on their efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Microsoft leads the pack while Tesla is bringing up the rear.

Apparel makers greening their factories in developing world
9 Mar 2022
Sometime in the coming month, a South Korean clothing manufacturer plans to flip the switch on a pair of solar power projects on the rooftops of two of its factories in southern Vietnam. The $5.6 million project won’t cost Hansoll Textile, the manufacturer, a penny.

Amazon rainforest nears tipping point that may see it become savannah
8 Mar 2022
The Amazon rainforest is nearing a tipping point that will see it transform into savannah, according to researchers who have found that the biodiversity hotspot has lost resilience in the past two decades.
Carbon prices in the EU crash despite rising fossil fuel prices
8 Mar 2022
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the price of carbon allowances in the EU has fallen drastically, lowering the cost to emit carbon despite record high fossil fuel prices.

Berlin to unleash €200 billion for climate protection until 2026
8 Mar 2022
The German government will funnel an extra €200 billion into climate protection, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in a move widely considered a bid to pacify their Green coalition partners over increased military spending.
U.S. EPA proposing rules to cut emissions from heavy trucks
8 Mar 2022
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday said it was proposing new rules to cut smog-forming and greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles.

A radical, carbon negative project in Turkey is turning algae into bio-jet fuel
8 Mar 2022
The first carbon-negative biorefinery in Europe opened in Istanbul and is utilising algae to make a variety of products for multiple sectors in Turkey.

How London plans to make the entire city an Ultra Low Emissions Zone
8 Mar 2022
Three years ago, London was the first city to introduce an “Ultra Low Emissions Zone,” or ULEZ, which charged the most polluting vehicles a fee to enter—something the BBC called one of the most radical anti-pollution policies in the world at the time. The zone expanded last year. Now the government plans to expand it to cover the entire city.

A reprieve for coal? Xi Jinping urges ‘realism’ on China’s road to carbon goals
7 Mar 2022
China’s declining coal industry got a boost on the weekend when Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a “realistic” approach to achieving the country’s carbon neutrality goals.

Climate change taking big bite out of food supply
7 Mar 2022
With its siege on neighboring Ukraine, Russia has embroiled two of the world’s five leading wheat exporters in a chaotic war, representing about a quarter of the global trade in staple grain.
African experts call for climate-proofing farming systems to overcome hunger
7 Mar 2022
The eradication of hunger and malnutrition in Africa will only be realized once governments leverage nature-based interventions to strengthen the resilience of farming systems in the face of climatic stresses, experts said on Friday.

Chile creates national park to save glaciers
7 Mar 2022
Chile said Saturday it is creating a vast national park to protect hundreds of glaciers that are melting due to climate change.

How Big Ag bankrolled regenerative ranching
7 Mar 2022
Advocates of “regenerative ranching” methods claim they’re slashing the carbon footprint of the ranching industry — but they’re actually propping up a scam that Big Ag is bankrolling.

Truck maker Hino Motors reveals it faked emissions data
7 Mar 2022
Leading truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. admitted to falsifying the results of tests for exhaust emissions and fuel economy of three types of engines over a number of years

World agrees to negotiate a ‘historic’ treaty on plastic pollution
4 Mar 2022
World leaders concluded the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly on Wednesday with a promise to the world: By 2024, delegates will broker a binding, international treaty addressing the full life cycle of plastics — including its production and design.
Windfall for Aussie farmers as government changes carbon credit rules
4 Mar 2022
Australian carbon farmers and landholders are set for a potential windfall of almost $2.6 billion from a surprise Morrison government decision that allows them to tap into surging market demand for Australian Carbon Credit Units.

Timber giant quietly converts Congo logging sites to carbon schemes
4 Mar 2022
A major European logging firm may have illegally converted more than a dozen of its timber concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo into so-called conservation concessions, a new investigation can reveal.

Almost all climate-related corporate disclosures are inadequate: CDP
4 Mar 2022
Just 1% of companies who submit climate change-related data to nonprofit environmental disclosure platform CDP provide investors with the information they need to assess whether they have a credible plan for the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Low-carbon cement trial cuts CO2 emissions by 60%
4 Mar 2022
A UK Government-backed innovation and demonstration programme has successfully developed and trialled new low-carbon cements which have up to 60 per cent lower embodied CO2 emissions than Portland cement, the current market leader in the UK.

Climate risks are wake-up call for sovereign bonds
4 Mar 2022
The government bond market needs to wake up to climate-related risks, according to a report calling for more countries to follow Chile’s lead in issuing debt linked to sustainability targets.

EU carbon permit prices crash after Russian invasion of Ukraine
3 Mar 2022
The price of carbon permits in Europe has crashed dramatically following Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, lowering the cost of emitting carbon for the EU’s most polluting companies.

‘Atlas of Human Suffering’ only matters if countries take action
3 Mar 2022
After two days of absorbing, parsing, and reading analyses of this week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, one conclusion shines through: the compendium that UN Secretary General António Guterres calls an “atlas of human suffering” will only matter if countries take action.

Climate stories don’t have to be depressing to be effective
3 Mar 2022
Stories in which characters take action with an intent to protect the climate make readers more likely to support climate policies and more likely to say they’ll take pro-environmental actions themselves, according to a new study.

Stilride uses "industrial origami" to create stainless steel electric scooter
3 Mar 2022
Swedish startup Stilride has unveiled the electric Sport Utility Scooter One, which is manufactured from stainless steel using an origami-like process that reduces the amount of material used.

Reaching peak carbon early could save hundreds of thousands of lives in China
3 Mar 2022
Reaching peak carbon emissions before its 2030 target could help China to avoid more 600,000 deaths from exposure to the most deadly small particles over the following two decades, a study has found.
‘One of the most extreme disasters in colonial Australian history’: climate scientist
3 Mar 2022
The deluge dumped on southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales this week has been catastrophic. Floodwaters peaked at around 14.4 metres high in Lismore – two metres higher than the city’s previous record.

The UN’s climate report highlights the dangers of natural solutions
2 Mar 2022
A variety of researchers have highlighted the potential to leverage nature to combat climate change, by planting trees or growing crops to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

100% green power by 2035 – high hopes for Germany's next renewables reform
2 Mar 2022
Germany’s government has initiated the first steps of a wide-ranging renewables reform that should make the country’s power supply almost 100 percent renewable by 2035.
Tonga volcano eruptions have smaller cooling impact on climate change: study
2 Mar 2022
An analysis has revealed that the cooling effect of Tonga's volcano eruptions would be much smaller than initially thought and not strong enough to overwhelm longer-term global warming tendency.

Australian Carbon + Biodiversity projects starting to kick off
2 Mar 2022
FARMERS across Australia will see a boost to their financial and environmental bottom lines as the first tranche of successful Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot projects are starting to kick off.
As petrol prices rise, will carbon emissions come down?
2 Mar 2022
No one likes paying A$1.80 per litre for petrol. But amid forecasts of prices climbing to $2.10 as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, it’s possible some good could come of that pain – including greater energy independence and a faster path to net-zero emissions.

An "atlas of human suffering": Guterres
1 Mar 2022
"An atlas human of suffering" was UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pithy summary of the latest climate report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change yesterday.