International: United States
Some inconvenient truths in bringing climate science to the judiciary
Today 11:45am
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.
US EPA moves to speed clean air permits for power plants, industry
Wed 13 May 2026
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would speed up the process for large polluters to obtain clean air permits, the latest move by the Trump administration to ease regulatory burdens on American power plants and industry.
Trump’s Iran war may stymie climate gains with boost to big oil, experts say
Mon 11 May 2026
Windfall profits could lock in Trump-era political wins for the industry and slow clean-energy transition.
‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level, study finds
Fri 8 May 2026
The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.
California’s battery array is as powerful as 12 nuclear power plants. Here’s what’s on the horizon
Fri 8 May 2026
An expert in the state’s energy grid explains how the state is faring amid federal cuts.
Alaskan megatsunami triggered by climate change
7 May 2026
The wave at the Tracy Arm Fjord in the Tongass National Forest last year was triggered by a rock landslide which was driven by climate change.
Trump takes a ‘wrecking ball’ to independent scientific advisory board
30 Apr 2026
Without the impartial oversight of its board, the National Science Foundation is now “fully at the behest of the White House,” experts warn.
Trump administration to pay two more companies to walk away from US offshore wind leases
29 Apr 2026
Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have agreed to end their offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million. Both companies have decided not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States.
US official: No hope for global carbon tax
28 Apr 2026
A U.S. negotiator warned other countries in a closed-door meeting that efforts to rein in climate pollution from ships has "no prospect" of success.
Prospects for global green shipping deal boosted by US tariff ruling, analysts say
24 Apr 2026
While divisions remain over the international shipping’s Net Zero Framework, the US’s main threat may now have been partly neutered
Republican lawmakers attempt to shield big oil from climate lawsuits in ‘alarming’ bills
24 Apr 2026
Climate experts and advocates warn House and Senate bills will protect polluters at the cost of the climate.
Environmental groups sue Trump administration over approval of new ultra deep-water drilling project
23 Apr 2026
Environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its approval last month of oil company BP’s ultra deep-water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico.
Judge dismisses Trump administration’s bid to block Hawaii climate lawsuit
20 Apr 2026
It was the second defeat for the Trump administration’s unusual litigation to stop states from acting on climate change.
‘A disturbing lack of integrity’: Columbia students file complaint against energy thinktank taking big oil money
20 Apr 2026
thinktank at Columbia University is engaging in deceptive trade practices by hiding the extent of its financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, according to a first-of-its-kind administrative complaint filed by student activists and shared with the Guardian.
As energy costs rise, some states back off ambitious climate goals
17 Apr 2026
Seven years ago, New York lawmakers set ambitious goals for slashing greenhouse gas emissions with clarion calls about saving the future. Now, with slow progress made and political realities shifting, Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking a delay, saying she wants to save consumers money.
Gun manufacturers won the ultimate legal shield. Big Oil wants that, too
15 Apr 2026
Backed by the Trump administration, the industry is seeking to block all climate lawsuits that seek compensation from fossil fuel producers for damages.
Is the Keystone XL pipeline back?
14 Apr 2026
A company has proposed to build a crude oil pipeline crossing the Canadian border near where the long-contested project would have entered the United States.
US EPA head gives keynote address at climate sceptic conference
10 Apr 2026
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin gave the keynote speech Wednesday at a conference hosted by a climate denial group.
Trump’s budget would cut billions from climate programs while boosting military spending
8 Apr 2026
Trump’s 2027 budget proposal targets what the administration calls the “Green New Scam” through budget cuts to energy and environment programs.
Climate experts say spring is coming earlier. How will that affect agriculture and ecosystems?
7 Apr 2026
An earlier spring affects when migratory birds arrive, leaves emerge, and fruit ripens — among plants and animals that determine ecosystem health.
Transparency International US: Conflicts of interest in carbon markets are 'pervasive'
7 Apr 2026
In the absence of strong, independent decision-making and meaningful public oversight, carbon markets have developed in ways that consistently fail to deliver tangible, additional, or permanent emissions reductions.
Double danger? Climate change, El Niño push Earth 'beyond its limits'
1 Apr 2026
A freakish March heat wave has already pushed temperatures to summertime levels throughout much of the western and central United States, but a new report comes with a dire warning: This is just the beginning.
Balcony solar is spreading across the US
31 Mar 2026
The balcony solar movement is running hot in Germany, and now it is spreading into the US like gangbusters, just in time for US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran to send the cost of coal through the roof alongside oil and natural gas.
US cannot meet Iran war-induced LNG shortfall: industry leaders
27 Mar 2026
Business leaders are warning that the United States lacks the infrastructure to alleviate a global LNG shortage caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, which has kept a fifth of the world's energy supplies from leaving the Gulf.
US has caused $10tn worth of climate damage since 1990, research finds
27 Mar 2026
The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.
California sues Trump energy department over revival of controversial oil pipeline
25 Mar 2026
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said he has sued the US energy department to stop it from using a cold-war-era law to restart the long-disputed Sable Offshore pipeline system linking the Santa Ynez offshore platform to California refineries.
US to pay almost $1bn to French energy company to kill wind project plan
24 Mar 2026
As a fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran drives up global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration has announced it will pay French energy major TotalEnergies $1bn to kill plans to construct wind farms off the US east coast.
The US broke the all-time heat record for March. Yes, it’s climate change
24 Mar 2026
An unprecedented heat wave in the West broke the record for the hottest March temperature anywhere in the United States: 108 degrees. It’s an alarming signal of how hot the planet is getting and how fast it’s happening.
Thousands remain under evacuation orders in Hawaii flooding
23 Mar 2026
Flooding across Oahu is now the worst Hawaii has seen in over 20 years. More than 230 people have been rescued so far. Some 5,500 people remain under evacuation orders in part because of rising water levels at the Wahiawa dam.
US National Academies of Sciences says no to demands it remove climate info
18 Mar 2026
State attorneys general won't get climate chapter removed from a legal manual.
Spring, climate change, jet stream serves up buffet of wild weather hitting US
18 Mar 2026
Nearly every type of wild weather hit some part of the United States on Monday as the normal changing seasons clash of cold and warm air collided with a jet stream gone crazy and a possible dash of climate change, meteorologists and scientist said.
New York cooks up a plan to boost energy efficiency in public housing
18 Mar 2026
The state plans to pay for induction stoves to be installed in 10,000 apartments across New York City. A Bronx walk-up provides an early look at what’s to come.
Trump administration sues California over the state’s nation-leading vehicle-emission rules
17 Mar 2026
The Trump administration ramped up a battle with California over the state’s nation-leading vehicle-emission standards Thursday, suing air regulators over rules aimed at curbing pollution from cars.
‘We make a lot of money’: Trump downplays rise in gas prices during Iran war
16 Mar 2026
Donald Trump on Thursday shrugged off the economic toll the war in Iran is taking on gas prices across the United States, writing on social media that “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money”.
As Russia bombs Ukraine’s power plants, Gulf Coast LNG companies win big
11 Mar 2026
Record LNG exports to Europe are pushing up prices for US consumers even more than forecast.
The war in Iran shows us another cost of our fossil-fuel economy
6 Mar 2026
When people debate the cost of fossil fuels versus renewables, the conversation almost always centers on the price at the pump or the cost per kilowatt-hour on your electricity bill. That’s understandable — those are the costs you can see. But they’re not the whole story.
Climate deniers expected more resistance to Trump’s fossil fuel blitz
6 Mar 2026
As Donald Trump assaults the legal foundation of America’s ability to regulate global warming emissions, climate deniers have been privately celebrating what they claim is the “silent” acquiescence of billionaires, Democrats, climate activists and even reporters to the president’s aggressive pro-fossil fuel agenda.
Repeal of endangerment finding is part of a systematic effort by US to dismantle climate policy
3 Mar 2026
COMMENT: Climate policy expert and founder of the NewClimate Institute in Cologne, Germany, explains what the step means for the US and for global climate diplomacy.
Judge orders Greenpeace to pay $345m over Dakota Access pipeline protest
2 Mar 2026
Greenpeace says the case is far from over after being found liable for defamation and other claims brought by the energy firm.
Surviving on Trump's dangerous planet
2 Mar 2026
COMMENT: Yet another war, and yet another argument for an end to oil.
Trump’s plan for rising energy costs: Pump oil, make data centers pay
26 Feb 2026
Energy affordability was in the spotlight during President Trump’s lengthy and at times rambling State of the Union address Tuesday evening as the president promised to bring down electricity prices in an effort to assuage voter concerns about rising costs.
Why California could be the big winner as EPA abandons climate policy
26 Feb 2026
The federal government is walking away from its tailpipe emissions rules, sparking a legal debate over whether states can now write their own standards.
US Supreme Court to hear bid by oil companies to toss climate suits
25 Feb 2026
The U.S Supreme Court has agreed to hear a bid by ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to scuttle a lawsuit brought by officials in Boulder, Colorado that seeks to hold the oil companies liable for helping fuel climate change in a case that could affect dozens of similar lawsuits around the country.
Trump tariff reversal could cut costs for US energy firms but will likely leave broader flows unchanged
24 Feb 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court's Friday decision to strike down trade tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump last year may ease costs for some oil producers and drillers, but experts and analysts told Reuters that broader energy flows would likely remain unchanged for now.
US succeeds in erasing climate from global energy body’s priorities
23 Feb 2026
Trump’s energy chief had threatened to leave the International Energy Agency if it continued to focus on climate.
California, Connecticut preparing 'attack' against Trump's repeal of basis of US climate regulation
20 Feb 2026
California and Connecticut are working together on a multi-state "plan of attack" against President Donald Trump's repeal of the foundation of federal climate regulation of vehicles, the states' attorneys general told Reuters on Tuesday.
US pressures global energy body to drop net zero modelling
19 Feb 2026
The United States is calling on the world's most influential energy organisation to abandon net zero emissions scenario modelling that has informed much of the global green transition, arguing the targets are unrealistic.
Newsom to world leaders: 'Donald Trump is temporary'
18 Feb 2026
California Governor Gavin Newsom has long positioned the state as a durable counterweight to Trumpism, particularly on climate policies that California has expanded as the White House retreats.
EPA boss offers forceful defence for scrapping landmark Obama climate policy
17 Feb 2026
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is just following the law, he said Saturday in Munich, where he defended the Trump administration’s move this week to disengage the United States from decades of efforts to regulate climate change.
Trump has overseen larger coal decline than any other US president
17 Feb 2026
His administration’s latest efforts to roll back US climate policy have been presented by interior secretary Doug Burgum as an opportunity to revive “clean, beautiful, American coal”.
Datacentres should be forced to invest in wind and solar energy, all states agree – except Queensland
Wed 13 May 2026
Power hungry datacentres that are growing to meet the demands of artificial intelligence could be forced to invest in enough new solar and wind generation to completely cover their electricity needs.
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.
Risk of drought in UK grows after unusually dry start to spring
Today 11:45am
The risk of drought is rising after an unusually dry start to spring has pushed river flow, groundwater and reservoir stores below normal levels across much of the country, especially in central and southern England.
Carbon capture ‘doesn’t work’: Former British Columbia premier
Fri 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
Today 11:45am
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.
With its first marine reserve, Ghana protects its ocean to secure its future
5 May 2026
Comment: Last month, Ghana made news when it declared its first marine reserve and sited it in one of the nation’s most ecologically and biologically significant marine environments.
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 methane alert system expanded to coal and waste sectors after Indian landfill named among world’s top emitters
6 May 2026
The United Nations is expanding its methane monitoring system to cover coal mines and waste facilities, after satellite analysis identified a landfill in India among the world’s three largest methane-emitting sites.
