International: United States
US renewables take the 2019 top spot
2 Jun 2020
Renewable energy consumption in the US topped coal consumption in 2019, the first time this has occurred in more than 130 years.
How a contrarian scientist helped Trump's EPA
29 May 2020
In March 2017, a scientist named James Enstrom rattled many public health experts by publishing a study concluding that there was no link between fine soot air pollution and premature death.
Alaska patiently awaits ice-melt tsunami
18 May 2020
A melting glacier in Alaska might trigger a landslide that would cause a major tsunami, scientists have warned.
Could New York's youth convince the State to divest?
18 May 2020
One analyst says oil, gas and coal were the biggest pension contributors for 30 years, but now are the worst performing sector—and there are no signs of improvement.
Trump buying one million barrels of oil
15 May 2020
The Trump Administration is planning to buy one million barrels of oil from US companies after funding to make a larger purchase failed to pass Congress.
Biden taps Ocasio-Cortez and Kerry to fight climate
15 May 2020
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has appointed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the avatar of the Green New Deal, and former Secretary of State John Kerry, an architect of the Paris climate agreement, to his climate team.
Fossil fuel giants set for virus bailout bonanza
13 May 2020
Fossil fuel companies and coal-powered utilities in the US are set for a potential bonanza under federal government plans for a bond bailout, part of the rescue package for the coronavirus crisis.
Trump reverses nearly 100 green rules
8 May 2020
After three years in office, the Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies the president promised to undo.
Struggling farm workers face worsening heat
7 May 2020
Life is already bad enough for underpaid and overworked crop pickers in the US, but as lethal heat levels rise they will render outdoor labour in the harvest season increasingly impossible.
Trump-friendly fuel firms get millions in aid
5 May 2020
US fossil fuel companies have taken at least $50m in taxpayer money they probably won’t have to pay back, according to a review of coronavirus aid meant for struggling small businesses.
Warren Buffett dumps US airline stocks
4 May 2020
Legendary American investor Warren Buffett has sold his firm’s entire holdings in the four major US airlines, warning that the world has changed for the aviation industry because of the coronavirus crisis.
North America’s fracking boom flounders
1 May 2020
The shale industry made the US a major producer once again. But Covid-19 looks likely to ruin many prospectors.
Trump wants to mine Grand Canyon
29 Apr 2020
The Trump administration, seeking to restore America’s “competitive nuclear advantage,” wants to mine uranium on land bordering the Grand Canyon.
Big Plastic asks Congress for $1b bailout
29 Apr 2020
The plastics industry is asking Congress for $1 billion to bail out plastic recycling during the coronavirus crisis.
Climate fighter Gore throws weight behind Biden
24 Apr 2020
Climate champion and former US vice-president Al Gore has endorsed Joe Biden's presidential candidacy.
Everything points to a megadrought
20 Apr 2020
Climate change could be pushing the US west and northern Mexico towards the most severe and most extended period of drought observed in a thousand years of US history, a full-blown megadrought.
TEXAS OIL: We will disappear as an industry
16 Apr 2020
Texas just did something that only recently might have been unthinkable. The state whose name is synonymous with American oil took the unusual step of formally considering statewide production cuts.
Biden must convince climate voters he's a believer
14 Apr 2020
Bernie Sanders’ departure from the US presidential race left hardcore climate change activists in mourning—and wondering where former vice-president Joe Biden stands.
San Francisco bans reusable shopping bags
6 Apr 2020
San Francisco is banning reusable shopping bags to prevent outside germs from entering grocery stores.
Obama urges voters to 'demand better'
3 Apr 2020
Former US president Barack Obama has urged voters to "demand better" of the government after the Trump administration rolled back a key Obama-era fuel standard intended to combat climate change.
Trump throws lifeline to oil industry
31 Mar 2020
The Trump administration's unprecedented decision to suspend enforcement of US environmental laws amid the covid-19 crisis throws a lifeline to the oil industry.
Pensacola plays host to a climate killer
25 Mar 2020
Ten miles north of Pensacola, Florida, an aging chemical plant, its tanks, smokestacks and stainless steel pipes sprawling across hundreds of acres, is a climate killer hiding in plain sight.
Biden and Sanders go head to head on climate
17 Mar 2020
It only took 10 debates, a worldwide pandemic, and the winnowing of the Democratic field down to two men in their late 70s — but the American public finally got to hear a substantive debate about climate change.
Coronavirus could mean the end of Small Oil
16 Mar 2020
In a globalised world, the US economy cannot escape the effects of a global pandemic, geopolitical upheaval, and the subsequent plunge in oil prices.
Honolulu sues petroleum companies
11 Mar 2020
Honolulu city officials suing eight oil companies say climate change already is having damaging effects on the city's coastline, and lays out a litany of catastrophic public nuisances.
Pro-Trump climate denial group lays off staff
9 Mar 2020
An influential climate-denial think tank bankrolled by President Donald Trump’s far-right billionaire donors has laid off nearly a dozen staffers amid financial troubles, according to three former employees.
Is climate change urgent enough to justify a crime?
9 Mar 2020
On April 28, 2019, four retirees and a 20-year-old student were arrested for planting a vegetable garden on the railroad tracks at Zenith Energy, an oil distribution facility in Oregon.
BROADCAST SNOOZE: US networks drag the chain
2 Mar 2020
Television news is covering little more than the tip of the climate change iceberg, a new US survey shows.
Trump budget slashes environment funding
13 Feb 2020
President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2021 calls for significant reductions to US environmental programmes at federal agencies, including a 26 per cent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump blanks climate crisis in State of the Union
7 Feb 2020
In his State of the Union address to a divided Congress, President Trump president has extolled his own role in making the nation the world’s leading oil and natural gas producer.
Groups plan to sue Trump over airline emissions
4 Feb 2020
Protest groups plan to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency for failing to regulate aircraft emissions after a 2016 agency determination that those emissions pose a danger to public health.
State marks first for coastal building rules
30 Jan 2020
New Jersey will become the first US state to require that builders take into account the impact of climate change, including rising sea levels, in order to win government approval for projects.
Amazon staff risk jobs to protest climate policies
30 Jan 2020
Amazon has threatened with dismissal hundreds of employees who are demanding the company adopts more eco-conscious practices.
GM to invest billions in EV plant
30 Jan 2020
General Motors will invest more than $2 billion in its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to make the facility the automaker’s first devoted entirely to electric vehicles.
Court finds Exxon not guilty of fraud
11 Dec 2019
Exxon Mobil has prevailed in a lawsuit in which the energy giant was accused of downplaying the toll climate change regulations could take on its business.
Texas fossil fuel support paves the way for 'carbon timebomb'
9 Dec 2019
Texas is leading the way to a “looming carbon timebomb” as US output of oil and gas is forecast to rise by 25 per cent over the next decade.
Climate change important to me, says Trump
6 Dec 2019
US president Donald Trump has described climate change as important to him, saying clean air and clean water were top of his environmental agenda.
Kerry declares war on climate with some help from Hollywood
4 Dec 2019
FORMER US Secretary of State John Kerry has declared World War Zero by forming a bipartisan coalition of Hollywood stars, world leaders and military brass to push for public action on climate change.
Most Americans say US should do more
27 Nov 2019
A majority of Americans believe the government must do more to address pollution and climate concerns, according to a new study.
Michael Bloomberg is a climate leader
26 Nov 2019
Michael Bloomberg has poured his time and hundreds of millions of dollars into projects aimed at getting the world 'beyond carbon,' but can he win the presidency?
California makes stand against major carmakers
21 Nov 2019
California says it won't buy cars from General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and other automakers that are aligning with the Trump administration in its battle over emissions rules.
Green new-dealers go all out on housing
19 Nov 2019
US political firebrands Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have unveiled the next step to their Green New Deal plan with a bill focused entirely on reimagining public housing.
THAT'S THE SPIRIT: Vodka made from CO2
19 Nov 2019
In Brooklyn, they're making vodka without potatoes or grains. The key ingredients are hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide.
EXXON TRIAL: It's now up to the judge
11 Nov 2019
Lawyers for New York State and ExxonMobil have wrapped up a landmark climate fraud trial, shaping a tangle of testimony and evidence.
US will keep seat at climate talks after it exits Paris
5 Nov 2019
Despite abandoning the Paris Agreement deal it helped to broker, the US will continue to influence global rulemaking on climate change.
How climate change could bust the housing market
4 Nov 2019
An investor whose firm saw the 2008 mortgage crisis coming, is warning that another financial disaster may be growing inside the real estate market: this time inflated by climate change denial on the coasts.
TILLERSON TALKS: Former Exxon chief in the dock
4 Nov 2019
Former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson has taken the witness stand in the company's climate fraud trial and gave the clearest defense yet for his former employer.
US emissions will fall despite Paris pullout
1 Nov 2019
Greenhouse gas emissions from the United States will fall even if the country pulls out of the Paris Agreement, a new report says.
US green economy boasts 10 times more jobs
25 Oct 2019
The green economy has grown so much in the US that it employs around 10 times as many people as the fossil fuel industry.
Exxon turned its back on us, say scientists
25 Oct 2019
Telling their story before a Congressional committee for the first time, two former ExxonMobil scientists have detailed how the oil giant turned its back on the research they did for the company 40 years ago on the looming threat of climate change.
Two Australian states offer free public transport as war pushes up fuel prices
30 Mar 2026
Public transport in two Australian states will be made free to incentivise people not to drive as fuel prices soar due to the war in the Middle East.
China's Xi urges faster development of new energy system as Middle East war continues
Today 11:30am
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for accelerated planning and construction of a new energy system to safeguard the country's energy security, weeks into the Iran war that has triggered global energy shocks.
Europe’s energy illusion: Why a €1 trillion green bet hasn’t broken the import habit
31 Mar 2026
The war with Iran is exposing a hard truth – Europe’s green push has left it no less dependent on imported energy.
Britain hits renewable power record in 2025, but fossil fuel use also up
Today 11:30am
Renewable power such as wind and solar provided a record 52.5% of Britain’s electricity generation in 2025, government data showed on Thursday, but fossil fuel use also rose.
Mark Carney just picked his lane on climate change
17 Feb 2026
COMMENT: Mark Carney's time as prime minister has been defined in part by his decision to roll back Trudeau-era climate policies.
Vietnam’s gig workers slammed by rising fuel costs amid fallout of Iran war
Today 11:30am
Diesel prices have more than doubled in the Southeast Asian nation amid Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Vanuatu Indigenous leaders raise concerns over plans to build resort for cruise tourists
1 Apr 2026
Indigenous community leaders in Vanuatu have raised concerns over plans by the cruise operator Royal Caribbean to build a private beach club on the island of Lelepa, arguing environmental impact assessments by the company are “incomplete” and “misleading”.
China's huge push to reduce air pollution had an unexpected consequence in the Arctic
Thu 2 Apr 2026
China's cuts to aerosol emissions reduced sea ice loss, but it may have revealed a bigger story about climate change.
Rationing power and diluting petrol – how African countries are coping with effects of Iran war
30 Mar 2026
Countries across Africa have taken measures such as diluting petrol and restricting electricity consumption to cope with the fuel crisis triggered by the US and Israel's war in Iran.
Beef production drives 40% of agriculture-linked forest destruction, Brazil leads
26 Mar 2026
Beef production is the leading driver of agriculture-linked deforestation, accounting for 40% of all forest clearing done to open space for food production, according to details of a study released on Tuesday.
Iran war should trigger faster exit from fossil fuel dependence, UN climate chief says
18 Mar 2026
The disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is a lesson on the risks of relying on fossil fuels which should drive governments to wean their economies off oil and gas faster, the U.N. climate secretary told Reuters on Monday.
