International: Australia
OPINION: Canberra wants business to sit tight
8 May 2019
By ERWIN JACKSON | With Australia’s current policy, the government is saying to business to sit on their hands and do little for another decade
Wesfarmers dumps coal and turns to e-cars
7 May 2019
Just months after selling the last of its thermal coal assets, Wesfarmers – one of Australia’s leading business conglomerates – has made a $776 million play to enter the lithium market and tap into the opportunities of the global switch to electric vehicles.
FUR WARS: Australia to cull over two million feral cats
2 May 2019
Australia will cull more than two million untamed cats over the next year, cutting their numbers to about four million.
How Australia can be 100% renewables by 2030s
1 May 2019
Australia could be powered 100 per cent by “intermittent” renewables by the early 2030s, says climate change policy expert Professor Ross Garnaut.
Rio Tinto ready to quit Minerals Council
15 Apr 2019
Rio Tinto has signalled it is prepared to quit its membership of industry associations, including the Minerals Council, if the council makes public statements inconsistent with Australia’s Paris climate agreement commitment.
Australia not ready, say expert firefighters
15 Apr 2019
More than 20 former fire and emergency chiefs from multiple states and territories say Australia is unprepared for worsening natural disasters from climate change and governments are putting lives at risk.
Queensland upsets with new solar rules
12 Apr 2019
Queensland has confirmed plans to put in place controversial new regulations for solar farm construction that will restrict the installation or removal of PV panels to licensed electricians.
Australia sitting pretty on hydrogen
11 Apr 2019
With demand set to rise across the world, Australia is set to become a global primary producer of hydrogen.
Tasmania's bushfires raise mercury scare
11 Apr 2019
Tasmania’s bushfires might have resulted in the release of significant amounts of mercury from burnt trees into the atmosphere.
Australia's fire forests might be changed forever
9 Apr 2019
Parts of Australia’s climate change-impacted forests might never be the same again, scientists say.
Coalition tailors budget for climate denial
4 Apr 2019
The Australian government has delivered its last budget before May elections with long-term climate and clean energy policies and technologies being ignored.
Labor climate policy is to hit big polluters
3 Apr 2019
A Bill Shorten Labor government in Australia would add about 100 high polluters to those subject to an emissions cap, and drastically slash the present cap’s level.
Japan to oppose new coal-fired power plants
2 Apr 2019
Japan’s environment minister has announced he will “in principle” oppose any new plans to build or expand coal-fired power stations, as further signs emerge of a dramatic energy pivot by Australia’s top export market for thermal coal.
Canberra gets blame for failure to cut vehicle emissions
1 Apr 2019
Cuts to carbon emissions from vehicle efficiency standards have been left out of government projections for meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitments, indicating the policy has been shelved.
Top companies accused of undermining Paris deal
26 Mar 2019
New analysis shows 22 of Australia’s largest companies are actively working to undermine the Paris Agreement targets, betting shareholders’ money on strategies that assume global climate change action fails.
More gas mining threatens climate, water and health
22 Mar 2019
Australia, like its competitors Qatar, Canada and the US, aspires to become the world’s largest exporter of gas, arguing this helps importing nations reduce their greenhouse emissions by replacing coal.
Toyota's Melbourne plant to make hydrogen
22 Mar 2019
Toyota and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency will kick in $7.4m to transform part of the carmaker’s decommissioned Melbourne car manufacturing site into a commercial-grade hydrogen production and refuelling site.
Scientists call for stronger land-clearing laws
14 Mar 2019
Australia’s high rates of forest loss and weakening land clearing laws are increasing bushfire risk, and undermining the country's ability to meet national targets aimed at curbing climate change.
Western Australia watchdog gets tough
12 Mar 2019
Western Australia’s environmental protection authority has announced tough new measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from large projects.
HORROR HEAT: Australia looks back on its angriest summer
8 Mar 2019
Australians will remember the past few months as the angriest summer they have known - a time so hot that fruit cooked on the trees.
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF LUCK: Hidden victims of heatwaves
5 Mar 2019
Extreme weather events are causing severe damage to native flora and fauna, but the casualties are slipping under the radar.
Australian emissions reach new peak
1 Mar 2019
Australia's greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, reaching their highest on a quarterly level since mid-2011.
Morrison adopts $2b 'climate solutions' fund
25 Feb 2019
Australian leader Scott Morrison will attempt to appeal to voters by rebadging Tony Abbott’s emissions reduction fund as a “climate solutions” fund – with $2bn to be rolled out over 10 years.
Angry islanders reject rights swap idea
19 Feb 2019
Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga has angril rejected the idea that islanders would exchange maritime rights for Australian citizenship, telling Canberra to focus on breaking its coal addiction
Scientists feel under attack over Adani work
19 Feb 2019
Australian scientists say relentless, sustained, and needlessly personal media attacks on those analysing the impacts of the Adani coalmine undermines the role of science.
Why Australia won’t meet Paris targets
15 Feb 2019
There’s no way Australia achieve the targets five years early without major policy changes, which are unlikely under the current government, says a leading climate scientist.
How forest managers might pick the brains of clever trees
15 Feb 2019
The discovery that some trees can “remember” heatwaves could help forest managers to deal with the impacts of climate change.
Savage heat engulfs temperate Tasmania
15 Feb 2019
Australia has been going through one of its hottest and stormiest summers on record and usually temperate Tasmania, its island state (https://tinyurl.com/y4snt4pg), has taken a battering.
Australia could be 100% renewables by 2032
12 Feb 2019
Australia could reach the equivalent of 100 per cent renewables by 2032, if the current rates of installation of wind and solar continue, says a new report.
NSW court rejects coal mine in landmark call
11 Feb 2019
Environmental groups are cheering a decision in NSW's Land and Environment Court that found the emissions of greenhouse gases and resulting climate change from a proposed coal mine were among the reasons to reject the project.
Overheated Aussies might have to sideline favourite sports
7 Feb 2019
Australia's summer sports obsession could face interruptions as extreme weather events increase.
Australia heat sign of things to come, say scientists
4 Feb 2019
AUSTRALIA sweltered through the hottest month in its history in January and climate experts say temperatures are rising faster than predicted.
AUSSIE OVEN: ‘It’s like hell here’
22 Jan 2019
It was 48.9C last Tuesday in Port Augusta, South Australia, an old harbour city that now harvests solar power.
Believe it or not, Australia's going to get hotter and drier
20 Dec 2018
Australia will experience more extreme heat, longer fire seasons, rising oceans and more marine heatwaves.
Sydney and Melbourne vow to ditch coal power
17 Dec 2018
Sydney and Melbourne have committed themselves to phasing out coal, in a move at odds with the Australia’s aggressively pro-coal national government.
Why Whyalla faces a bright new future
14 Dec 2018
Whyalla’s death notice has been written a number of times but the South Australian industrial town's future took a big step forward in 2017 when British-based industrialist Sanjeev Gupta bought the steelworks.
Australia eyes role as clean-energy exporter
6 Dec 2018
Politicians around Australia are proposing ambitious plans to export renewable energy from Australia, using high-voltage power lines laid under the oceans.
Adani will fund mini-version of its mega-mine
5 Dec 2018
Indian mining multinational Adani has announced that it will self-fund a significantly smaller coal mine in Queensland, after failing to secure finance from more than 30 domestic and international banks and lenders.
Cheap drainage nets keep water pollution at bay
4 Dec 2018
The Western Australia city of Kwinana is using a somewhat obvious, simple and cost-effective system of nets to prevent waste from entering its waters.
Thousands of Aussie kids take to the streets
3 Dec 2018
Thousands of schoolchildren across Australia walked out of class on Friday to demand action by the federal government on climate change.
Happy birthday, big battery
3 Dec 2018
By most accounts, Adelaide's giant lithium-ion battery - the world's largest - has been a remarkable success. But there are some concerns that have so far escaped scrutiny.
Labor’s smashing win tonic for clean energy
27 Nov 2018
The relief from Victoria’s stunning election result last weekend was palpable.
Morrison tells striking schoolkids to butt out
27 Nov 2018
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
Aussie schoolkids take action over climate change inaction
8 Nov 2018
Hundreds of students around Australia are preparing to strike from school because of what they say is a failure by politicians to recognise climate change as an emergency.
Unseasonably hot, you say? Not any more
7 Nov 2018
The record hot weather being experienced across prts of Australia is now the new normal as the effects of climate change become baked-in.
Living normally, a platypus could ingest 69 drugs a day
7 Nov 2018
Insects near waste water could give a platypus or trout half a daily human dose of antidepressants, a new study reveals.
Is corporate Australia facing a 'tipping point'?
6 Nov 2018
In the parlance of climate science, a "tipping point" is a dire prospect – a critical threshold breach that triggers an abrupt and rapid change in climate.
NSW launches emerging energy programme
2 Nov 2018
New South Wales has launched one of the most significant energy transition projects in Australia designed to help to replace most of the state’s ageing coal plants with wind, solar and storage.
Clean energy is surging – and headed for a fall
31 Oct 2018
The relentlessly corrosive nature of Australian political debate about climate change can sometimes mask that this is a golden moment for the clean energy industry.
How boiling Darwin could keep the people and regain its cool
29 Oct 2018
July 2018 in Darwin was 2deg hotter than any previous July and the record heat has continued. Surveys show that it's the reason people are leaving the city.
Depleted Tennessee farmland is now teeming with wildlife
Tue 9 Dec 2025
Middle Fork Bottoms State Park demonstrates the benefits that flow when ecology is left to do what it does naturally.
China’s BEV trucks and the end of diesel’s dominance
Thu 4 Dec 2025
Cheap Chinese battery electric heavy trucks are no longer a rumor. They are real machines with real price tags that are so low that they force a reassessment of what the global freight industry is willing to pay for electrification.
Seven EU countries pressure European Commission to rethink 2035 diesel and petrol car ban
Tue 9 Dec 2025
Pressure from EU countries, lawmakers and the automotive industry is likely pushing the European Commission to delay the revision of the bloc's ban on diesel and petrol cars by 2035.
UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record
Fri 5 Dec 2025
Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recorded.
Canada rolls back climate rules in energy deal with Alberta
1 Dec 2025
Under the agreement, the federal government will scrap a planned emissions cap on the oil and gas sector and drop rules on clean electricity.
Politicians in South-East Asia ignore climate change at their own political peril
Tue 9 Dec 2025
Anger and frustration are growing in devastated communities, as governments botch their response to the climate crisis.
Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global
Mon 8 Dec 2025
Storms in the Southern Ocean influence weather patterns across Australia, New Zealand and the globe.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
European Investment Bank pledges over 2 billion euros for African renewables projects
26 Nov 2025
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is pledging more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of financing for renewable energy projects on the African continent over the next two years.
In blow to Lula, Brazil Congress revives controversial environmental bill
2 Dec 2025
Brazil's conservative-led Congress on Thursday reinstated much of a bill that makes it easier for companies to secure environmental permits, infuriating the leftist government and green groups.
Analysis: Why COP30’s ‘tripling adaptation finance’ target is less ambitious than it seems
Fri 5 Dec 2025
One of the headline outcomes to emerge from COP30 was a new target to “at least triple” finance for climate adaptation in developing countries by 2035.
