International: Australia
Australians are being misled by 'dodgy' offsets, say Fortescue
13 Feb 2025
Australians are being misled into believing that low-quality carbon offset schemes will lead to a net zero future, despite evidence that only reducing fossil fuels will work, iron ore mining giant Fortescue says.
Thousands flee homes as floods hit Australia
4 Feb 2025
A woman has died in Australia and thousands have been forced to flee their homes after torrential rainfall caused flooding in northern Queensland.
Developers abandon applications to build wind farm off Australia's South West coast
28 Jan 2025
Two of the earliest proponents of an offshore wind farm in WA's South West are among several developers who are no longer applying to work on the project.
Great Barrier Reef hit by its most widespread coral bleaching, study finds
23 Jan 2025
More than 40% of individual corals monitored around a Great Barrier Reef island were killed last year in the most widespread coral bleaching outbreak to hit the reef system, a study has found.
Saving the ‘kidneys’ of the Great Barrier Reef
20 Dec 2024
In Queensland, Australia, once-unlivable wetlands are now attracting birds and fish while also reconnecting Indigenous youth with the land.
No glue, chains or locks: Victoria’s antisemitism crackdown a smokescreen to target climate protesters, critics say
20 Dec 2024
The Victorian government has been accused of “shoehorning” new anti-protest measures that could be used to crack down on the climate movement into reforms touted as necessary to combat antisemitism.
As the heat soars, dangers mount in Sydney’s parks and playgrounds
18 Dec 2024
In the state’s far west, the temperature was oppressive on Monday, reaching well into the 40s as residents braced for the prospect of Australian heat records being shattered.
Australia leads the world in arresting climate and environment protesters
17 Dec 2024
Australian police are world leaders at arresting climate and environmental protesters.
Australia accused of undermining landmark climate change case brought by Pacific nations in international court
4 Dec 2024
Vanuatu leads the charge of several nations arguing developed nations have a legal responsibility beyond UN commitments.
‘Unprecedented’ climate extremes are everywhere. Our baselines for what’s normal will need to change
4 Dec 2024
Extreme temperature and rainfall events are increasing around the world, including Australia. What makes them extreme is their rarity and severity compared to the typical climate.
Albanese government says Australia on target to reduce emissions – but campaigners say it could do more
2 Dec 2024
Departmental analysis includes contentious measurements but climate minister says government is cleaning up after ‘decade of denial, delay, dysfunction and utter neglect’.
Carbon footprint of a total knee replacement in Australia on par with driving a car from Brisbane to Sydney
27 Nov 2024
Researchers have calculated the greenhouse gas impact from a single knee replacement. A three-hour operation has similar emissions compared to a 914-kilometre car trip.
170 climate protesters arrested after allegedly disrupting shipping in New South Wales
26 Nov 2024
Two protesters have been granted bail after facing court on charges relating to an anti-fossil fuel demonstration that allegedly disrupted the shipping channel leading into the world's largest coal port.
Australia commits additional $50 million to deal with climate change
21 Nov 2024
The Australian government has committed an extra $50 million towards a global fund to deal with the loss and damage caused by climate change.
Australia accused of ‘exporting climate destruction’ on tiny Pacific neighbours with massive gas expansion plans
20 Nov 2024
Pacific governments at a UN climate summit are criticising Australia’s plans for a massive gas industry expansion in Western Australia, saying it could result in 125 times more greenhouse gas emissions than their island nations release in a year.
Is Australia's migration system ready for rising numbers of climate refugees?
19 Nov 2024
Australia is now obligated to help Tuvalu when it calls for help to respond to "the devastating impacts of climate change."
Australian engineer says Elon Musk, JD Vance key to US climate policy under Donald Trump
13 Nov 2024
An Australian engineer says billionaire Elon Musk and vice-president-elect JD Vance could become unexpected climate allies under the Trump administration.
Dams have taken half the water from Australia’s second biggest river – and climate change will make it even worse
7 Nov 2024
The largest wetland on Australia’s second longest river, the Murrumbidgee in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, is drying up. This is bad news for the plants, animals and people who rely on the vast Lowbidgee Floodplain.
Landmark court case sees activist group sue gas giant Santos for allegedly misleading investors
30 Oct 2024
Gas giant Santos told investors it had a clear plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2040 but had no evidence to back it up, the Federal Court has heard during the first morning of litigation against the gas giant.
COP this – gas is not a climate solution
30 Oct 2024
Hosting COP31 climate talks is an opportunity to showcase South Australia to the world, writes Belinda Noble, but not if we allow it to promote gas.
Why the time is right for Australia’s second shot at carbon pricing
25 Oct 2024
By Ross Garnaut | OPINION: Australia now has a government and parliament wanting to build Australia as the renewable energy superpower of the zero-carbon world economy.
Qantas accused of greenwashing as climate advocates lodge complaint over sustainability, net zero claims
17 Oct 2024
An environmental advocacy group has lodged a complaint with the consumer watchdog over claims Qantas makes on sustainability and climate.
Electric car sales have slumped. Misinformation is one of the reasons
16 Oct 2024
Battery electric vehicle sales in Australia have flattened in recent months.
Half Australia’s oceans to be protected - more than any other country
11 Oct 2024
Little-known Australian islands that teem with emperor penguins and elephant seals, and have the country’s only two active volcanoes, will be protected with an additional 300,000 square kilometres of marine park.
Coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as declared, report warns
11 Oct 2024
Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as they currently declare, underscoring the need to introduce independent reporting of the potent greenhouse gas, an energy thinktank has warned.
Australia suffers setback in green hydrogen race
10 Oct 2024
Australia’s bid to become a global hydrogen superpower has been dealt a blow, with the nation’s biggest energy utility pulling out of building a large-scale green hydrogen hub despite the project being shortlisted for a share of $2 billion of funding from the Albanese government.
Australian Security Leaders Climate Group calls on federal govt to overhaul climate threat preparedness
9 Oct 2024
The danger of climate change has led to calls for a radical overhaul of how the federal government is planning to manage climate threats.
Our leaders are collaborating with fossil fuel colonialists
4 Oct 2024
By Tim Winton | COMMENT: The lassitude that distinguishes our moment is born of sorrow and buried rage. We act like colonial subjects because, in effect, that’s what we are
Australia’s ‘immoral’ coalmine decision akin to drowning its Pacific neighbours, Tuvalu’s climate minister declares
1 Oct 2024
Tuvalu’s climate minister says Australia’s decision to approve three coalmine expansions calls into question its claim to be a “member of the Pacific family”, and undermines the Australian case to co-host the 2026 UN climate summit with island nations.
Define ‘tree’: The fight over Woolworths’ eco-beef pledge
27 Sep 2024
Woolworths’ ban on beef reared on deforested land has prompted Australian farmers to campaign for rules to define the practice that would allow them to chop down trees as part of their land management.
Not enough demand: Big batteries in Aus may be told to stand by on empty to avoid rooftop solar switch-off
26 Sep 2024
The Australian Energy Market Operator is poised to introduce a significant shift in operating protocols that would involve instructing big batteries to stand by on empty to help address periods of extremely low or even negative operating demand.
'Why are carbon offsets not dead yet?'
26 Sep 2024
Journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot discusses neoliberalism, nature, and negative consequences with the Australia Institute's Climate and Energy program director.
New book exposes just how long, and hard, the fossil fuel industry has worked to advance its interests
25 Sep 2024
As freelance journalist Royce Kurmelovs points out in his new book Slick: Australia’s Toxic Relationship with Big Oil, most people underestimate just how far in advance the fossil fuel industry plans not only its new projects, but its PR and lobbying efforts, as well.
Climate change threatens Australian tourism more than is widely believed. Here’s why
23 Sep 2024
Right now, Australia is one of the top five tourist destinations in the world, a distinction the World Economic Forum says it shares with only the United States, France, Spain and Japan.
Cop31 is a chance for Australia to go from climate laggard to global leader
20 Sep 2024
OPINION: Australia’s bid to co-host the UN’s climate conference is not just a diplomatic event; it is a pivotal opportunity to redefine the nation’s role in the global fight against climate change.
Almost 68% of Australia’s tourism sites at major risk if climate crisis continues, report says
13 Sep 2024
Uluru, the Daintree and Bondi beach among locations that could be impacted if planet hits even 2C of warming by 2050.
Australian city stands to receive $200m economic boost if bid to co-host UN climate talks succeeds
12 Sep 2024
Australia and Pacific countries are vying with Türkiye to host the annual United Nations climate change talks in 2026.
Australia may delay release of 2035 climate target as world awaits outcome of US election
6 Sep 2024
Experts urge Australia not to delay target too long as report by Climate Change Authority identifies six barriers to net zero.
How climate change accelerated Australia's spring winds
4 Sep 2024
Strong winds in eastern Australia this week are being driven by climate change interfering with jet streams, the powerful high-altitude winds that encircle the globe.
Australian homeowners struggling to afford insurance as climate risks grow, report says
28 Aug 2024
Home insurance is becoming unaffordable for a growing number of Australian households as increased climate threats drive up their premiums.
Australia passes landmark bill mandating climate risk disclosures for companies
26 Aug 2024
New reporting standards require climate resilience assessments under both 1.5°C and 2.5°C warming scenarios.
Summer heat arrives in August, threatening to break all-time Australian winter temperature records
26 Aug 2024
Extraordinary August heat is developing across Australia, causing temperatures to spike up to 16 degrees Celsius above average while threatening all-time seasonal records in multiple states.
Humans can work with nature to solve big environmental problems – but there’s no quick fix
21 Aug 2024
“Nature-based solutions” are gaining momentum in environmental policy, including in Australia.
‘Unacceptable’: Red flag for huge Australian gas project
6 Aug 2024
Australia's federal government could be forced into a potential choice between environmental protection and its commitment to long-term gas supply to Australia’s trading partners.
Tasmanian 'Eco-Milk' tests shoppers' thirst for climate-friendly dairy
26 Jul 2024
A small dairy in Tasmania is stocking supermarket shelves with what it says is the world's first branded milk produced by cows fed with a seaweed that makes them emit lower levels of environmentally damaging methane gas.
Climate activists have received months-long sentences. Are tougher laws eroding Australians’ right to protest?
23 Jul 2024
NSW enacts highest number of new laws among states, with climate protesters disproportionately affected, report finds.
Methane leaking out of old mining site in Dharawal National Park near Sydney that closed decades ago
23 Jul 2024
In the heart of what appears to be a pristine national park, a greenhouse gas is leaking out of an underground coal mine more than 30 years after it was last used.
Australian Super accused of greenwashing by investing funds from ethical option in coal, oil and gas industries
19 Jul 2024
Australia's largest super fund has invested money from its 'Socially Aware' option in the coal, oil and gas industries.
Gas giant Woodside buys grazing properties in southern NSW to offset carbon emissions
18 Jul 2024
Woodside has bought four sheep and cattle farms in NSW for $40 million to help offset emissions from oil and gas projects.
‘Knowledge keeps the fires burning’: how ancient Indigenous wisdom can transform our battle against climate change
15 Jul 2024
As climate change worsens, Indigenous peoples can offer valuable insights into sustainability and resilience, Australian researchers say.
EPA erases references to human-caused climate change from websites
19 Dec 2025
EPA has scrubbed references to people’s contribution to rising temperatures from some of its climate change webpages.
Verra cancels four tree planting projects in China. And starts reviews of 45 more projects
16 Dec 2025
“Multiple carbon projects in China are facing serious allegations regarding the authenticity of government approval documents."
France updates its 2050 carbon neutrality roadmap
17 Dec 2025
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, France released a revamped climate plan promising to phase out oil and gas and sharply increase electricity use.
Net-zero scenario is ‘cheapest option’ for UK, says energy system operator
15 Dec 2025
A scenario that meets the “net-zero by 2050” goal would be the “cheapest” option for the UK, according to modelling by the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
The ecological havens flourishing beneath power lines
19 Dec 2025
Initiatives to foster native wildflowers, grasses and shrubs are turning utility corridors into wildlife corridors.
‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia
12 Dec 2025
Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’.
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.
Are rainforests now a cause of, rather than the answer to, climate change?
15 Dec 2025
A new study finds that Africa’s forests, responsible for one-fifth of global carbon removal, are beginning to generate carbon as the result of human activity.
Thousands of climate disasters are not included in official reports from Amazonian countries
12 Dec 2025
More than 12,500 extreme weather events impacted the Amazon and its population in 10 years, but countries have not generated enough information about it, according to a new scientific study.
UN environment report 'hijacked' by US and others over fossil fuels, top scientist says
11 Dec 2025
A key UN report on the state of the global environment has been "hijacked" by the United States and other countries who were unwilling to go along with the scientific findings, the co-chair has told the BBC.
