International: Australia
Australia's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard weakened
27 Mar 2024
The Australian government will loosen fuel economy standards for utes and vans in its proposed climate laws for cars.
Climate-conscious investors put nuclear dead last on list of desirable Australian ventures
26 Mar 2024
Nuclear energy ranks last on the list of climate technologies that big institutional investors want exposure to, according to a survey of climate conscious investors with $37tn under management.
A role for nuclear in Australia’s climate response?
7 Mar 2024
In the facts-lite political debate, the opportunities and comparative advantages of solar are being sidelined.
Melbourne Extinction Rebellion climate activists jailed for disrupting traffic
6 Mar 2024
Two environmental activists have been jailed for causing major traffic disruptions in Melbourne, after they used a rental truck to block the West Gate Bridge.
Australia's capital cities will see number of hot days double by 2050 without urgent climate change action
29 Feb 2024
By the time today's children reach retirement, Australia's capital cities will swelter through at least twice as many days over 35 degrees and large swathes of the country will be all but uninhabitable for much of the year.
‘They ain’t seen nothing yet’: UN boss names climate change impacts coming to Australia
27 Feb 2024
Top UN climate official Simon Stiell says Australia will be “front and centre in resettling entire national populations” if climate targets are not met.
Australian Prime Minister vows full support amidst wildfires destroying homes
26 Feb 2024
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledges immediate assistance to Victoria amid wildfire crisis, emphasising urgency in addressing climate change.
Pressure from young people for Anthony Albanese to consider duty of care over climate harm
23 Feb 2024
A group of young Aussies fronted up to demand Anthony Albanese do more to protect them from one issue.
Australia’s best known carbon-neutral farm can no longer offset its emissions
21 Feb 2024
Trees and soil on Jigsaw Farms in western Victoria have now passed peak sequestration – reflecting the challenge for the broader red meat industry.
Climate change is forcing Australians to weigh up relocating
19 Feb 2024
Big environmental changes mean ever more Australians will confront the tough choice of whether to move home or risk staying put.
Veteran economists say a carbon levy would cut emissions, cut inflation and raise billions, but see little prospect of adoption
16 Feb 2024
Two of Australia’s most respected economists have put forward a bold plan to lower global carbon emissions by at least 6 per cent, super-charge a new green export industry, deliver much cheaper power bills and dramatically cut the rate of inflation.
Climate change ambassador explains why Australia won't back Pacific's calls to urgently phase out fossil fuels
1 Dec 2023
Australia's climate change ambassador says the federal government cannot yet back the Pacific's call to rapidly phase out fossil fuels because it's grappling with "complex" and "difficult" issues thrown up by decarbonisation.
Australia climate change activists disrupt shipping at coal port
27 Nov 2023
A climate change protest off Australia's east coast disrupted operations at the country's biggest coal export port on Saturday.
World’s biggest carbon storage project off WA coast burying only a third of what it promised
15 Nov 2023
After seven years of operation US giant Chevron is burying just a third of the carbon pollution it committed to burying at its Gorgon gas export project.
We are looking for a transformational roadmap to transform our energy sectors: German envoy
8 Nov 2023
With less than four weeks until the next UN climate conference COP-28, Germany's special envoy for climate diplomacy, Jennifer Morgan, is in Australia for a series of meetings with key climate players.
The Beetaloo gas field is a climate bomb. How did CSIRO modelling make it look otherwise?
1 Nov 2023
As Australia braces for a summer of projected extreme heatwaves and bushfires, the fossil gas industry is gearing up for a truly enormous new fracking project in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.
Australia’s compromised climate negotiators
10 Oct 2023
Sitting in a bar in Manhattan recently, there for Climate Week NYC and the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, I watched as Australians from both government and the private sector worked the room.
Sydney smashes 1 October heat record as Victoria fights bushfires
4 Oct 2023
The previous hottest start to October in Sydney was 33.1C but Sunday’s mercury peaked at 35.6C.
Queensland carbon-negative soil project issued record number of credit units
29 Sep 2023
They look like any other cattle strolling through a grassy paddock in Queensland, but beneath their hooves the soil is doing more than producing feed. It is helping to fight climate change.
Australia would be raising $70 billion a year from the carbon price if it wasn't dismantled
19 Sep 2023
The problems at Qantas, and the explosion in executive remuneration this century, reflect a much more general problem in the Australian economy.
Australia braces for bushfire season
13 Sep 2023
Smoke sweeps through the treetops as a fire consumes the dense undergrowth of the Australian winter bush.
Canberra could protect decarbonising industries from unfair competition
8 Sep 2023
The Australian government has engaged an eminent academic to study the need for a carbon tariff to protect local manufacturers from unfair competition from imports which are not subject to restrictions on emissions of CO2.
Eco-anxiety looms as headspace survey reveals young people want climate change action
8 Sep 2023
An Australian survey of young people shows more than half fear for the future due to climate change.
Sydney is running out of water while facing climate change and a population boom
5 Sep 2023
Experts are getting increasingly nervous about a problem that’s been lying dormant for years: Sydney’s water supply is running out.
Aus govt acknowledges risk of climate change to bonds after court case
1 Sep 2023
The federal government has agreed to settle a world-first court case accusing it of misleading investors by failing to disclose the risk climate change poses to its bonds.
Australia's most popular carbon credit scheme questioned by experts
22 Aug 2023
Deep in the Australian outback, there are billions of dollars being made from carbon farming.
Australia weighs up green imports tariffs for steel, cement
18 Aug 2023
Imported steel and cement could face a tariff to ensure Australian producers seeking to reduce carbon emissions are not disadvantaged.
Santos’s deep-sea carbon capture fantasy
16 Aug 2023
New laws will allow a notorious gas field project to dump carbon dioxide in Timor-Leste waters – using a process that has not worked anywhere in the world – so it can meet its net-zero requirements.
Fossil fuel sites in Australia releasing climate-damaging methane into atmosphere
11 Aug 2023
An investigative report published by a global nonprofit has made worrying revelations about methane leaks from as many as 35 fossil fuel sites located in Australia.
Australian aid policy to focus on climate — and countering China
10 Aug 2023
Australia has put the climate and job creation in the Pacific at the centre of its new foreign aid policy, part of an effort to woo back island nations that have fallen under China’s deep-pocketed influence.
Climate crisis: Australia must ready for ‘devastating’ regional disruption, MPs told
4 Aug 2023
Failed states, a rise in authoritarian politics and heightened risks of conflict among potential threats outlined in thinktank’s assessment.
Australian doctors want urgent action on climate threats
2 Aug 2023
Medical colleges representing over 100,000 doctors, physicians and medical experts say Australia's healthcare system is unprepared for the next disaster.
Australia's kelp forests an underwater 'Amazon' could help climate change
17 Jul 2023
To most people, the word "forest" would conjure images of vast tree communities, like the towering karri forests of WA's South West.
Asparagopsis seaweed: scientists call for stricter oversight in livestock sector
4 Jul 2023
Safety concerns have been raised about the native seaweed asparagopsis, which is now being commercialised to help farmers reduce methane emissions in sheep and cattle.
Aus sides with China, Russia in bid to sink Pacific nations’ climate plan
4 Jul 2023
Australia has been criticised for siding with China and Russia to oppose a popular plan from a group of Pacific Island nations to tackle carbon emissions from the shipping industry.
Scientists researching cloud brightening in bid to cool Great Barrier Reef
28 Jun 2023
Queensland scientists who have been altering clouds with tiny particles to try and limit the effects of global warming are presenting their findings for the first time this week.
Australia commits to build $34 million renewable hydrogen plant
27 Jun 2023
Australia has green-lit plans to build a A$51 million (US$34 million) renewable hydrogen plant in Victoria state, as the country moves to cut carbon emissions and boost alternative power resources.
Farmers lead climate change adjustment in Victoria, Australia
22 Jun 2023
Information that is relevant, accessible and trusted is critical for farmers seeking to adapt their agricultural business amid changes in climate, according to analysis of surveys conducted by the North East Catchment Management Authority (NECMA).
Climate change threatens all island life, hearing told
14 Jun 2023
When Paul Kabai was growing up on Saibai he was taught how, when and where to plant food, such as the root vegetable cassava, by his Aunties and Uncles.
New plan to manage health impacts of climate change
9 Jun 2023
Australians have been asked to have their say on a new plan to ensure the nation's health care system can respond to the impacts of climate change.
Conservationists file complaint with ASIC over fertiliser producer's climate marketing
8 Jun 2023
South Australia's peak environment group has called on the corporate watchdog to investigate accusations a Leigh Creek fertiliser company's marketing is misleading about the climate impacts of its processing plant – an allegation the company strenuously denies.
Companies ‘greenhushing’ to avoid scrutiny of climate goals, Asic says
7 Jun 2023
Practice allows companies to claim to have good environmental policies without having them tested, according to Australia’s corporate watchdog
Aus govt urged to push international banks to stop funding fossil fuel development
2 Jun 2023
Report claims Australia’s shareholdings in development banks has made it responsible for investing $828m in fossil fuel projects over five years.
Cattle farmers look below the surface to capture sustainable, carbon-neutral future
30 May 2023
Most farming achievements – fat cattle, healthy crops and good returns – are seen above the ground. But by digging into the soil, the Mackenzie family says they are seeing all that boom while also balancing out their emissions.
Study finds 2 billion people will struggle to survive in a warming world
26 May 2023
Two billion people, including many Australians, will find themselves living in dangerously hot places this century if global warming reaches 2.7℃, research released today reveals.
Dep. Climate Change seeks advice: potential conflicts on agency's board
24 May 2023
The department in charge of the Climate Change Authority (CCA) has told senate estimates it is seeking legal advice over potential conflicts of interest on the authority's board.
'Crunch time' for integrity of Australian carbon market
23 May 2023
An improved savannah fire management method for earning carbon credits is a priority for federal Labor, along with the release of once-secret data to restore public confidence.
World's biggest carbon capture plant running at one third capacity
19 May 2023
United States oil and gas giant Chevron has acknowledged its flagship carbon capture and storage project off Australia's north-west coast is operating at just a third of its capacity as problems bedevil the facility.
Australian government approves first new coal mine since elected
15 May 2023
The Australian government was bound by national environment laws when considering Central Queensland's Isaac River coal mine, a spokeswoman said.
World’s tallest wind power testing mast hopes to herald new generation of turbines
10 May 2023
With the inauguration of a new onshore wind power testing mast with a height of 300 metres, project developers in Germany hope it will pave the way for a new generation of wind turbines.
Some inconvenient truths in bringing climate science to the judiciary
Thu 14 May 2026
OPINION: Climate science had been knocking on the courthouse doors for quite some time when the Supreme Court of the United States finally invited it into the realm of legal action in 2007.
China’s leadership calls for ‘strict control’ of fossil fuels
28 Apr 2026
Chinese government leaders published a policy document on 22 April – Earth Day – calling for stricter controls on fossil-fuel consumption and greater oversight of heavy emitters.
Inequality causing 100,000 extra deaths a year from heat and cold in Europe
Tue 12 May 2026
Economic inequality adds more than 100,000 deaths to the vast toll from heat and cold in Europe each year, research has found.
UK halves Green Climate Fund contribution, as it spends more on security
Fri 15 May 2026
After promising £1.6 billion to the UN’s flagship climate fund in 2023, the UK government has now said it will only hand over half as much.
Carbon capture ‘doesn’t work’: Former British Columbia premier
8 May 2026
Former British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell warned the costly, troubled technology has failed to deliver, undercutting a central justification for billions in public subsidies and new oil infrastructure.
While the world hesitates, India must continue leading on climate
Thu 14 May 2026
India’s updated climate targets must translate into systems that secure growth, resilience, and autonomy.
How climate change threatens the economic backbone of the Pacific
4 May 2026
The vast Pacific Ocean and the islands dotted within it produce more than half of the world's tuna.
‘Triple whammy of climate chaos’: Why Antarctica's sea ice collapse is no longer a mystery
Mon 11 May 2026
Scientists have finally identified the ‘triple whammy’ behind Antarctica’s dramatic collapse, shedding new light on the chain reaction that has pushed its sea ice to record lows.
Africa secures major clean energy deals as France deepens investment push
Fri 15 May 2026
French and African leaders have announced more than $11 billion in renewable energy investments across Africa, underscoring the continent’s growing importance in the global push for cleaner energy and industrial development.
The country where lethal hantavirus cases are on the rise. Experts blame climate change
Wed 13 May 2026
Experts believe environmental degradation caused by climate change and human activity is contributing to its spread by allowing the rodents that transmit the virus to thrive in new areas.
UN members prepare for pivotal vote on landmark ICJ climate justice ruling
Fri 15 May 2026
If the resolution is passed, governments will recognise their legal responsibility to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
