International: Australia
Gas-guzzler Australia on road to becoming the next Cuba
15 Jun 2018
Australia's reluctance to recognise electric vehicles could mean that eventually it will join Cuba as the globe's Jurassic Park for cars.
Worsening drought pushes farmers to the brink
13 Jun 2018
On NSW's Liverpool plains, cows are being slaughtered because there is no way of feeding them after years of extreme weather.
Green steel king vows cheap power for Aussies
12 Jun 2018
UK “green steel” billionaire Sanjeev Gupta has unveiled a landmark agreement to provide cheap solar power to five major South Australian companies, promising to slash their electricity costs by up to 50 per cent.
Sweet turns sour as sugar takes on solar
12 Jun 2018
As solar farms spread across the central agricultural regions of Queensland, opponents are becoming increasingly vocal.
Australian beats Elon Musk to $820,000 Global Energy Prize
11 Jun 2018
Australia’s “father of PV”, Professor Martin Green, has been awarded the 2018 Global Energy Prize, beating out a shortlist that included Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Climate change a clear and present danger to Australia
25 May 2018
The changing climate means Australia is facing a range of important domestic and international security implications, a Senate report has found.
Australian businesses back renewables
16 May 2018
Australian businesses are jumping on board the renewables boom with almost half of the nation's major companies making the switch to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy.
How will drought-hit farmers feed Australia?
15 May 2018
Australia has just experienced the eighth-driest April on record with rainfall across grain, sheep and cattle heartlands well below normal. So how do farmers plan to keep the country fed?
No money in Aussie budget to fight climate change
14 May 2018
Australia's response to intensifying extreme weather events remains at the bottom of the national agenda, after the Federal Budget failed to deliver funding for measures to tackle climate change.
Energy service finds best deal for customers
11 May 2018
An Australian consumer group Choice has launched a $99 service to compare prices from electricity retailers, monitor them for 12 months and automatically switch subscribers to the best deal.
Droughts could be worst in 800 years
7 May 2018
Droughts, floods, heatwaves, and fires have battered Australia for millennia. Are recent extreme events really worse than those in the past?
Rio Tinto climate resolution marks big shift
7 May 2018
What does the advocacy group the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility have in common with the Local Government Super fund, the Church of England Pensions Board, and the Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund?
Climate 'culture war' will doom Australia
3 May 2018
Australia will not achieve its emissions reductions targets until it ends the “culture war” on climate policy, Labor frontbencher Mark Butler has said.
Labor states won't compromise on renewables
20 Apr 2018
Australia's Labor states will seek a watertight undertaking that their renewable energy schemes and targets will remain undisturbed by the Turnbull government’s proposed national energy guarantee at a critical meeting today.
Turnbull might allow power firms to buy offsets
19 Apr 2018
The Turnbull government is hedging its bets on whether to allow Australian energy companies to buy offsets to comply with their new 26 per cent emissions reduction target.
Australia's gas boom is getting out of whack
18 Apr 2018
The massive growth of Australia’s natural gas industry is inconsistent with the country's Paris commitments.
ACT takes lead on electric vehicles
17 Apr 2018
The Australian Capital Territory government has announced the country’s most ambitious transition plan to electric vehicles.
KOALA CRISIS: Don't blame urban sprawl for the deaths
11 Apr 2018
Tree clearing, not urban sprawl, is to blame for the deaths of thousands of koalas in Queensland, say environmentalists.
Most Australians want rid of coal power
3 Apr 2018
A majority of Australians would support phasing out coal power by 2030, including half the people in a sample identifying as Coalition voters, according to a new survey.
US and China behave as global emissions increase
26 Mar 2018
While global carbon emissions crept upward in 2017 the trends were not entirely bad news - the world's two biggest emitters, China and the United States, made progress in their own ways.
Thousands rally against coal in Sydney
26 Mar 2018
Thousands of people have marched through Sydney calling for an end to coal seam gas and coal mining and a renewed focus on renewables.
Ocean heatwave caused massive gas release
23 Mar 2018
A severe heatwave off Western Australia eight years ago hammered the world's largest region of seagrass, triggering the release of as much as nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Climate champion Weatherill chucks it in
20 Mar 2018
The Turnbull government is one step closer to being able to implement its proposed national energy guarantee, courtesy of Jay Weatherill’s departure as the South Australian premier after Saturday’s state election.
Greens want to end sale of fossil fuel cars by 2030
14 Mar 2018
The Ausralian Greens have proposed introducing mandatory fuel efficiency standards, ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and imposing a four-year 17 per cent tax on luxury vehicles.
Landmark case challenges NT land clearing
13 Mar 2018
A landmark court case in the Northern Territory is set to consider a challenge to a massive land-clearing approval based on its impacts on climate change.
Canberra politicians ride the golden escalator
12 Mar 2018
More than 180 individuals have moved between senior public service roles and the fossil fuel industry in Australia over the past decade - providing a golden escalator for former senior politicians.
Record means Australia's solar future looks bright
8 Mar 2018
The future of Australia’s solar industry is looking bright after a record 3.5m panels were installed on rooftops last year, giving the equivalent output of a medium-sized coal-fired power station.
Rio Tinto faces $84 billion shareholder revolt
5 Mar 2018
Australia’s second-biggest miner, Rio Tinto, faces a shareholder revolt over the role it plays in the country’s climate and energy debate.
Take your brolly to Broome ... it's had 1.5m of rain this year
26 Feb 2018
It has been a soggy start to the year in the Western Australian town of Broome. In the two months of 2018, 1.5 metres of rain has fallen,
Australia has a role for coal, says Shorten
21 Feb 2018
Labor Party leader Bill Shorten has declared there is a role for coal in Australia, and characterised the controversial Adani coalmine as just “another project”.
Canberra gives carbon emitters the go-ahead
20 Feb 2018
Nearly 60 Australian industrial sites have been given the green light to increase crbon emissions, cancelling out cuts paid for by the Coalition governmet using public money.
Battery boom keeping Australia’s grid fully charged
16 Feb 2018
Australia’s love affair with clean energy and battery storage is only just beginning, with the nation on the verge of an energy storage boom.
Australia's solar boom could almost double capacity in a year
13 Feb 2018
A record-breaking month of rooftop installations and a flood of large-scale solar farms could almost double Australia’s solar power capacity in a single year, industry analysts say.
Rail company rethink another blow to Adani mine
12 Feb 2018
Adani's plans for a mega coal mine in Queensland have taken a fresh hit with freight company Aurizon no longer seeking federal funding to build the project’s rail line.
First foreign Holden ‘missed opportunity’ to be hybrid
12 Feb 2018
The new Holden Commodore – the first to be made overseas – is a “missed opportunity” to launch a high-profile electric or hybrid car in Australia, according to pro-renewables groups.
Tourism Australia's least prepared for climate change
9 Feb 2018
Tourism is Australia’s most vulnerable and least-prepared industry to deal with climate change despite the fact it is already feeling its effects, according to a new report.
Tesla to outfit 50,000 homes with solar and Powerwalls
7 Feb 2018
Tesla will install solar arrays and Powerwalls on 50,000 homes in South Australia to create the biggest virtual power plant in the world.
Australian firms strike first forest credits deal
2 Feb 2018
Australian companies have struck the first long-term deal in that country to sell carbon credits generated from plantation forestry.
Australian university to be 100% solar powered
25 Jan 2018
The University of New South Wales in Sydney has signed an agreement to ensure 100 per cent of its electricity needs will be met by solar photovoltaics.
UK billionaire eyes EVs in old Holden plant
24 Jan 2018
UK billionaire Sanjeev Gupta is looking to buy equipment from and use part of the old Holden factory in South Australia to create an electric vehicle production line.
Australia climbs clean energy leaderboard
24 Jan 2018
Australia has been named among the top 10 nations investing in clean energy, with more than $11.3 billion spent on renewables in 2017.
Good sports sweat it out in stadiums not up to the job
22 Jan 2018
As Australian sports fans and players swelter through another summer season, questions of stadium design to deal with extreme heat are becoming more urgent.
Super battery beats expectations for first month
22 Jan 2018
The world’s largest lithium ion battery has brought much needed flexibility to the South Australian grid, encouraging other Australian states to follow suit.
Australia's greenhouse gas emissions highest on record
12 Dec 2017
Australia’s emissions over the past year were the highest on record, when relatively unreliable emissions from land use are excluded, according to new estimates.
Is this the end of the road for Adani’s megamine?
8 Dec 2017
Adani’s operations in Australia appear to be hanging on by a thread, as activists prove effective at undermining the company’s chances of getting the finance it needs.
Yes, it's a massive battery, but it does quite a lot
6 Dec 2017
Australians are watching in anticipation to see what impact South Australia's Tesla battery has on the local electricity market, and whether it could be a game-changer nationally.
‘I don’t know how Turnbull faces his grandkids’
5 Dec 2017
Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd talks about the failure of his country’s climate policy, the rise of China and the Carmichael coal mine.
Tesla big battery officially switched on in South Australia
4 Dec 2017
The Tesla big battery – the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery storage installation – was officially switched on in South Australia on Friday.
Victorian logging could trigger ecosystem collapse
4 Dec 2017
Decades of unsustainable logging has created an “extinction debt” in Victoria’s central highlands that will trigger an ecosystem-wide collapse within 50 years without urgent intervention.
Labor victory could spell end of Adani coal mine
1 Dec 2017
Queensland Labor looks certain to form a government promising to veto a $1b public loan, which observers say puts the giant Adani coal project in serious doubt.
A call to merge the climate and immigration movements
Fri 22 Aug 2025
On Hurricane Katrina's 20th anniversary, a Louisiana native makes the case for solidarity.
Record solar growth keeps China’s CO2 falling in first half of 2025
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024.
Spain battles one of its most destructive fire seasons even as its heat wave eases
Thu 21 Aug 2025
Spain tackled several major wildfires on Tuesday in one of the country’s most destructive fire seasons in recent decades, despite temperatures dropping across the Iberian Peninsula.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
Wed 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.
Death toll from northern Pakistan monsoon floods rises to almost 400
Thu 21 Aug 2025
Torrential rains across the country's north have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages.
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
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
