International: United States
US court overturns Alaska oil lease sale in a win for environmentalists
19 Jul 2024
A federal court in Alaska overturned an oil and gas lease sale that had been mandated by the Biden administration's signature climate law as part of a political compromise.
Rising seas wiped out an entire US species for the first time. Scientists say it’s a sign of things to come
17 Jul 2024
A unique plant has become the first species in the United States to be exterminated from the wild by the compounding effects of rising seas, scientists say.
Montana’s High Court considers a constitutional right to a stable climate
15 Jul 2024
The state’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments on an appeal of a decision that struck down a law supporting fossil fuel development.
The Hawaii seabed mining ban doesn’t spell the end of EV batteries
15 Jul 2024
Hawaii has banned all seabed mining for minerals within its waters to protect the local fishing industry, biodiversity and Native Hawaiian rights.
How different are the US presidential candidates on climate?
11 Jul 2024
An analysis of both Trump and Biden's climate policies quantifies the difference.
Biden proposes new rule to protect 36 million workers from extreme heat
4 Jul 2024
President Joe Biden proposed a new rule to address excessive heat in the workplace, warning that high temperatures are the country’s leading weather-related killer.
US examines carbon pricing on imports, climate envoy says
3 Jul 2024
The US is examining a potential carbon pricing system on imports among a “range of options”, in what would be a key policy shift as it looks to combat Chinese competition and cut emissions.
'I will save you from the heat'
3 Jul 2024
The US city of Phoenix responds to the deadliest environmental threat to city dwellers with a Heat Response and Mitigation team and initiatives like overnight cooling centres.
Lawyers could charge big oil with homicide after 2023 Arizona heatwave
27 Jun 2024
Prosecutors in Arizona could reasonably press homicide charges against big oil for deaths caused by a July 2023 heatwave, lawyers wrote in a new prosecution memorandum.
Climate change is already making your bills more expensive
27 Jun 2024
Researchers warn the hazards will only get worse, for the planet and the economy.
Officials announce two new carbon removal sites for Southern US
26 Jun 2024
In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Louisiana officials announced two new projects that are expected to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide.
Hawaii reaches first settlement in youth climate case
25 Jun 2024
Hawaii and young climate activists have reached a first-of-its kind legal settlement, giving youth a role in curbing planet-warming emissions while avoiding a major trial that was set to begin next week.
California seeks to seize big oil companies’ profits in climate greenwashing suit
24 Jun 2024
California’s Attorney General announced the state would seek to seize the “illegally obtained profits” of several big oil companies, for falsely advertising the environmental sustainability attributes of their products.
Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest and Northeast, bringing safety measures
19 Jun 2024
Stifling heat blanketed tens of millions across United States on Tuesday, forcing people and even zoo animals to find ways to cool down as summer arrives in what promises to be a sweltering week.
‘The time is right’ for US to catch up on high-speed rail, says British Amtrak exec
17 Jun 2024
With half a dozen US rail projects in the works, Andy Byford thinks Americans will soon clamor for 200mph train lines.
How congestion pricing makes cities more livable
17 Jun 2024
As New York puts its gridlock-busting plans on hold, the success of congestion pricing elsewhere proves it’s not just smart — it’s popular.
Florida’s 2024 hurricane season arrives with a rainy deluge
14 Jun 2024
Dangerous flooding from a tropical disturbance inundated much of southern Florida, blocking roads, floating vehicles and delaying the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games.
International court to determine state role in protecting population from climate change harm
31 May 2024
Briefings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights focused on how fossil fuels, mining and tourism worsen the effects of climate change, violating the human rights of the most marginalised populations.
The end of greenwashing is now within sight
30 May 2024
OPINION: The Biden administration’s new plan to overhaul the voluntary carbon market is an important step forward.
Biden’s offset reset
29 May 2024
The Biden administration is laying out new guardrails for corporate participation that could help boost confidence in markets that have come under heavy fire in recent years.
American AI data centres may use as much energy as new US solar farms produce
22 May 2024
Generative AI uses a lot of energy, though figuring out how much is hard. There’s no point in asking ChatGPT. It won’t say.
Biden ending new leases in America's top coal region
21 May 2024
The Biden administration is moving to end all new coal leasing in the country's largest producing coal region, the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.
The dangers of secret solar geoengineering
20 May 2024
A lack of transparency in solar geoengineering projects may tank public perception for an already maligned climate change strategy.
Inside a California oil town’s divisive plan to survive the energy transition
20 May 2024
Kern County is betting on carbon capture to replace oil jobs and tax revenue. But will the county’s new economy repeat the sins of the old one?
This Utah county is buying lawns to save water
17 May 2024
Would you ditch your grass for less-thirsty plants? In a place where every drop of water counts, a little cash compels residents to say yes.
How much is a planet worth?
16 May 2024
OPINION: Donald Trump recently told fossil fuel execs that a clean billion would get them literally anything they want in his next administration. That they would use that power to once-and-for-all overheat the earth is a given.
Biden to set 100% tariff on electric cars made in China
14 May 2024
It’s not official yet, but the Wall Street Journal says the Biden administration is expected to increase the import tariffs on electric cars made in China from 25% to 100%, a move that may embolden regulators in the European Union to do likewise.
Vermont could become first US state to make biggest emitters pay for climate-related damages
13 May 2024
Vermont’s House of Representatives has passed S.259, a state bill aimed at collecting recovery costs for climate-related damages from the biggest emitters, such as fossil fuel companies.
What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign
10 May 2024
Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry.
Big Oil misled public for decades about climate change
6 May 2024
A new report released details how oil companies knew the consequences of their emissions since at least the 1960s.
Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem.
24 Apr 2024
As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power.
US must choose between cheap EVs or an American industrial renaissance
23 Apr 2024
Chinese electric vehicles—should be a godsend to the Biden administration, whose two biggest priorities are reducing carbon emissions quickly enough to avert a climate catastrophe and reducing consumer prices quickly enough to avert an electoral catastrophe.
Biden administration moves to make conservation an equal to industry on US lands
22 Apr 2024
The Biden administration finalised a new rule for public land management to put conservation on more equal footing with oil drilling, grazing and other extractive industries on vast government-owned properties.
US meat lobby celebrates ‘positive outcome’ of COP28
18 Apr 2024
Industry leaders praise un food and climate plan as “music to our ears”.
Biden awards $830 million to toughen nation’s infrastructure against climate change
16 Apr 2024
The Biden administration on Thursday awarded $830 million in grants to fund 80 projects aimed at toughening the nation’s ageing infrastructure against the harmful impacts of climate change.
Residents of one of Arizona’s last ecologically intact valleys try to detour the largest renewable energy project in the US
15 Apr 2024
The SunZia transmission line that would carry wind energy from New Mexico to California has sparked one of the most consequential fights over the development for green energy.
Challenges to US climate rules sent to conservative-leaning appeals court
26 Mar 2024
A US judicial panel consolidated at least nine lawsuits challenging the US Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules requiring public companies to report climate-related risks in a venue favoured by Republican-led states and a business group.
What do Schwarzenegger, Fonda and Newsom have in common? They’re fighting oil drilling
26 Mar 2024
As the oil industry wages a multimillion-dollar campaign to repeal California drilling restrictions, the campaign to defend the state’s environmental protections is starting to resemble a Hollywood blockbuster.
More than 100 NGOs urge US special envoy to oppose carbon offsetting under Article 6
25 Mar 2024
More than 100 environmental, human rights, and frontline organisations have written to Joe Biden’s new special envoy for climate, John Podesta.
New report shows cancer organisation shares lobbyists with fossil fuel companies
25 Mar 2024
An American Cancer Society advocacy group’s links to firms that promote carcinogen producers called “shameful” and undermining to public health.
"There were no good options"
25 Mar 2024
OPINION: A real estate story in the New York Times might be one of the most telling pieces of climate journalism I’ve seen recently.
Biden seeks to accelerate the EV transition in biggest climate move yet
22 Mar 2024
The EPA’s final rule follows a concession to labor unions worried about a rapid shift to electric vehicles, and a nod that EV sales are slowing.
Connecticut wants to penalise insurers for backing fossil-fuel projects
21 Mar 2024
A new bill could impose a fee on any company insuring a fossil-fuel project in the state.
America's first large offshore wind farm opens
20 Mar 2024
America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is officially open, a long-awaited moment that helps pave the way for a succession of large wind farms.
What’s slowing down America’s clean energy transition? It’s not the cost
15 Mar 2024
New report finds renewable energy faces organised opposition and grid connectivity issues.
Researchers coax people to envision greener cities using AI images of familiar streets
14 Mar 2024
By cleverly combining advertising techniques with artificial intelligence, the team increased support for a sustainable transportation bill—particularly among republicans.
John Kerry: ‘I feel deeply frustrated’
14 Mar 2024
When former Secretary of State John Kerry stepped into a newly created post as America’s top climate diplomat in 2021, the reputation of the United States abroad was, in his words, “in the crapper.”
US leads global oil production for sixth straight year
13 Mar 2024
US crude oil production led global oil production for a sixth straight year, with a record breaking average production of 12.9 million barrels per day (bpd), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
The fires sweeping across Texas offer a terrifying warning
7 Mar 2024
As flames raced eastward across the Texas Panhandle for the fourth straight day at speeds faster than a person can run, a cold front, driving a snow squall, swept over the Great Plains.
Texas battles second-biggest wildfire in US history
4 Mar 2024
A rapidly spreading Texas wildfire has killed one person, forced residents to evacuate, cut off power to homes and businesses, and briefly paused operations at a nuclear facility.
Australia has new laws to protect nature. Do they signal an end to native forest logging?
Thu 11 Dec 2025
Reforms to Australia’s nature laws have passed federal parliament. A longstanding exemption that meant federal environment laws did not apply to native logging has finally been removed from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
China’s BEV trucks and the end of diesel’s dominance
4 Dec 2025
Cheap Chinese battery electric heavy trucks are no longer a rumor. They are real machines with real price tags that are so low that they force a reassessment of what the global freight industry is willing to pay for electrification.
EU closes deal to slash green rules in major win for von der Leyen’s deregulation drive
Wed 10 Dec 2025
Controversial “omnibus” bill saw center-right EU lawmakers side with the far right to water down environmental standards.
UK soars past wind power generation record for second time in two months
Wed 10 Dec 2025
Great Britain’s maximum wind generation record was broken on Friday, 5 December, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has confirmed.
Top climate adviser resigns, says Canada doing worse 'than almost any other country'
Thu 11 Dec 2025
Catherine Abreu explains why she was one of two founding members to resign from Canada's Net-Zero Advisory Body last week, saying she 'could no longer, in conscience, sit on this government-appointed body' after policy rollbacks and oil subsidies in the Alberta energy MOU.
‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia
Fri 12 Dec 2025
Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’.
Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global
Mon 8 Dec 2025
Storms in the Southern Ocean influence weather patterns across Australia, New Zealand and the globe.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
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".
European Investment Bank pledges over 2 billion euros for African renewables projects
26 Nov 2025
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is pledging more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of financing for renewable energy projects on the African continent over the next two years.
Thousands of climate disasters are not included in official reports from Amazonian countries
Fri 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
Thu 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.
