International: Australia
South Australia commits $150m to new-energy fund
13 Sep 2017
The government of South Australia has just announced it will invest $A150 million in renewable energy projects as part of its Renewable Technology Fund.
Australian business gets the tech message
6 Sep 2017
Australian businesses are now starting to grasp the fact they need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, says a company that had to take its carbon dioxide-capture technology to Europe because there was no interest at home.
Australia’s record winter linked to climate change
5 Sep 2017
Australia’s winter had the highest average daytime temperatures on record. It was also the driest in 15 years.
Abbott to be keynote speaker at climate sceptics' meeting
4 Sep 2017
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott next month will give the annual lecture to a London-based climate sceptic group.
More states powering ahead on climate targets
1 Sep 2017
Australian states and territories are powering ahead, developing policies that will meet the federal government’s internationally agreed greenhouse gas emission targets, with South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania leading the race.
Renewable energy boom could turn to bust
31 Aug 2017
Australia produced enough renewable energy to power 70 per cent of households last financial year, but advocates warn the booming industry will flounder unless the Turnbull government commits to a clean energy target.
Australian firm converts carbon emissions into 'green' concrete
28 Aug 2017
An Australian pilot project capturing carbon emissions and storing them in building materials aims to have a full-scale production plant by 2020.
Victoria moves to enshrine renewables targets in law
25 Aug 2017
The Victorian government has introduced legislation to enshrine its renewable energy targets in law and establish a reverse auction mechanism to build 650 megawatts worth of new projects.
Solar towers and storage plants will reshape energy markets
23 Aug 2017
The 150MW solar tower and molten salt storage plant to be built in South Australia could help to reshape Australian power markets, including the end of “baseload” power.
Premier renews warning states could go it alone
23 Aug 2017
South Australian premier Jay Weatherill has renewed his warning that Labor-led state governments could go it alone on energy policy if the Turnbull government can’t resolve its internal battle over the clean energy target.
Dry winter primes NSW for 'horrific' fire season
22 Aug 2017
After a dry winter, NSW is preparing for an early start to bushfires with fire fighters forecasting an “horrific” season.
South Australia to build solar thermal plant
18 Aug 2017
South Australia will build a 150MW solar thermal plant to bring clean, reliable power to the state.
Miner Adani faces claims of financial fraud
17 Aug 2017
Indian mining giant Adani, seeking public funds to develop one of the world’s largest coal mines in Australia, has been accused of fraudulently siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money into overseas tax havens.
Carmichael matters to Australia – and the world
17 Aug 2017
Proposals for Adani's Carmichael coal mine in Queensland threatens not only the Great Barrier Reef, but also global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
UK wrapping up $3b Green Bank sale to Australia
17 Aug 2017
The UK government this week is preparing to complete the $3 billion sale of its Green Investment Bank to a group led by Australia's Macquarie Group.
THE MADHOUSE EFFECT: How Australia and the US compare
16 Aug 2017
Climate policy in both Australia and the United States is being built upon alternative facts, fake news, outright lies, PR spin and industry-written talking points.
Climate change could spell disaster for Australia
15 Aug 2017
Military and climate experts, including a former chief of the defence force, have warned that Australia faces potential “disastrous consequences” from climate change.
Queensland gives nod to Wandoan coal mine
10 Aug 2017
A multibillion-dollar coalmine proposal in Queensland has been granted mining leases years after it was shelved amid falling commodity prices and a ramped-up global response to climate change.
Shareholder action 'sign of things to come'
9 Aug 2017
Shareholder moves to sue an Australian bank for failing to adequately disclose its financial exposure to climate change are a sign of things to come, a lawyer says.
Shareholders sue Commonwealth Bank
9 Aug 2017
The embattled Commonwealth Bank is being sued by shareholders for what they say is a failure to properly disclose the risks to the business posed by climate change.
Shortage of climate scientists puts Australia at serious risk
4 Aug 2017
Australia has a critical shortage of climate scientists, leaving it at serious risk of not delivering essential climate and weather services.
Australia records hottest July
2 Aug 2017
Australia has had its warmest July on record, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Australia left in the slow lane for electric cars
1 Aug 2017
News that deliveries to Australia of the Tesla Model 3 – the company’s first sub $60,000 electric vehicle – will not begin until 2019, nearly 3 years after enthusiasts put down a refundable deposit, shows just how far Australia has slipped in the race to vehicle electrification.
Poor power users hurt by climate policy uncertainty
1 Aug 2017
Low-income and disadvantaged Australians are bearing the brunt of energy price rises caused by climate policy uncertainty, a new report says.
Queensland to build one of longest e-vehicle highways
28 Jul 2017
Within six months, Queensland will have a 2000km network of electric vehicle charging stations that make up one of the world’s longest electric vehicle highways.
Aboriginals take carbon farming to Canada
27 Jul 2017
Australia’s world-leading indigenous land management and carbon farming programmes are spreading internationally, with a formal agreement signed to help to build a similar programme in Canada.
Get together and slash emissions, Australians told
20 Jul 2017
Australians collectively could slash greenhouse gas emissions by a staggering 70 per cent if they joined forces to become energy and climate trailblazers in their own backyards.
Australian powerco head supports Paris targets
19 Jul 2017
The head of Australia’s biggest energy utility – and its biggest coal generator – says that if any Clean Energy Target is to be effective it has to take into account global climate targets.
AA fights plan to cut car greenhouse gas emissions
17 Jul 2017
The Australian Automobile Association has tried to kill any government move to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars, arguing it would increase the cost to consumers and contradicting comprehensive government modelling.
States threaten to go it alone on clean energy
14 Jul 2017
Australian state energy ministers are threatening to go it alone with a clean energy target as they ramp up pressure on the Coalition government.
Believe it or not, Queensland plans to cut emissions
13 Jul 2017
Coal-hungry Queensland is preparing to slash its pollution to net-zero by 2050, under new plans just released by the State Government.
Coal price will decline, experts tell Australia
13 Jul 2017
As Australia mulls the building of its biggest-ever export thermal coal mine, its biggest foreign buyers look set to reduce their consumption, driving down the price of Australian coal, and the profitability of its mines.
Musk's big battery is a real game-changer
11 Jul 2017
Elon Musk’s agreement to build the world’s largest battery for South Australia isn’t just an extraordinary technological breakthrough that signs coal’s death warrant.
Tesla to build giant battery for South Australia
10 Jul 2017
US-based Tesla and French company Neoen will build the world’s largest lithium ion battery in South Australia with plans to complete construction before summer.
Climate Change Authority loses last climate scientist
6 Jul 2017
The Australian government's Climate Change Authority has just lost its last climate scientist.
How Australia bungled climate policy
5 Jul 2017
Australia has never had climate consensus – and it has been costly, argues Labor frontbencher Mark Butler in an extract from his book Climate Wars.
UN urges Australia to rethink Adani coal mine
4 Jul 2017
A UN committee has urged Australia to review its support for expanded coal production.
Censorship cry as Canberra hides emissions data
26 Jun 2017
Australia's Climate Council is calling for the backlog of the nation’s emissions data to be urgently released, with the Federal Government failing to provide the nation’s quarterly data for more than six months.
You've got it wrong, new report tells Australia
22 Jun 2017
As Australia's Senate launches an inquiry into the national security ramifications of climate change, a new report has warned global warming will cause increasingly regular and severe humanitarian crises across the Asia-Pacific area.
Australia's climate policies poisoned by pragmatism
20 Jun 2017
A history of failure has left Australia with virtually no genuinely independent advice on climate change.
Miners in bidding war for Rio Tinto's coalmines
13 Jun 2017
A multibillion-dollar bidding war for most of Rio Tinto’s Australian coalmines has broken out between China-backed Yancoal and Glencore after the Swiss commodities company made an unexpected offer.
Finkel’s emissions target breaks Paris commitment
12 Jun 2017
Less than two weeks ago, Australia's chief scietist Alan Finkel told the Senate his landmark report would help the country meet the commitments it made in Paris to reduce its economy-wide emissions by 28 per cet below 2005 levels by 2030.
Shorten offers to end climate wars
9 Jun 2017
Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offering bipartisan co-operation on climate change policy, after a "decade of toxic politics" in the area.
Australia's carbon emissions show rise
9 Jun 2017
Australia’s carbon emissions jumped at the start of 2017, the first time they have risen in the first few months of a year for more than a decade.
Sydney measures emissions from harbour
8 Jun 2017
Carbon dioxide emissions from Sydney Harbour have been measured for the first time.
Adani gives green light to Carmichael mine
7 Jun 2017
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has given the green light to the Carmichael mine and rail project, but it will still hinge on its Australian arm, Adani Mining, gaining bank backing for the contentious venture.
End of land clearing would slash emissions
2 Jun 2017
Ending land clearing in Australia by 2030 would cut greenhouse gas emissions by about as much as completely shifting the entire electricity sector to renewable energy for a year.
Australia has record-breaking year for renewables
1 Jun 2017
Renewable energy sources provided a record share of Australia’s power mix last year, due to record rainfall and the completion of new wind and solar projects.
Canberra gets serious about electric vehicles
1 Jun 2017
Businesses and policymakers have come together to stimulate Australia’s electric vehicle market, including the launch of a new national body, research grants, and private sector investment.
Australia vows to support Paris climate deal
30 May 2017
The Australian government will support the Paris agreement on climate change regardless of whether or not US president Donald Trump pulls out.
Climate scientists and republican lawyers are taking aim at Big Tech’s emissions
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Technology companies have long been one of the biggest investors in clean energy, but new accounting rules could upend that.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
Thu 16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
'Not up for discussion': Brussels rejects Washington's pressure on climate rules
Mon 13 Oct 2025
In response to US demands to roll back the EU's environmental legislation, the European Commission defended its autonomous power to adopt laws.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Thu 16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Familiar tensions emerge at the Pacific Islands Forum
26 Sep 2025
With China-Taiwan rivalry, China-Western competition, and big carbon emitters at odds with the islands on climate policy, there is plenty of tension to go around.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
Mon 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".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
Tue 14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Wed 15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
UN agency says CO2 levels hit record high last year, causing more extreme weather
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilisation and “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather.
