International: China
China's carbon market to introduce absolute emissions caps from 2027
27 Aug 2025
China will tighten its carbon trading market by introducing absolute emissions caps in some industries for the first time starting by 2027.
Is historically arid Beijing ready for a wetter future?
25 Aug 2025
Beijing's mountainous northern Huairou district and neighbouring Miyun district received a year's worth of rain in a single week, triggering flash floods that devastated entire villages and killed 44 people in the deadliest flood since 2012.
Record solar growth keeps China’s CO2 falling in first half of 2025
22 Aug 2025
Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024.
China's fossil-fuelled power rises to 11-month high in July
19 Aug 2025
China's fossil-fuelled power generation, mostly from coal, rose in July to the highest level since August 2024, official data showed on Friday, as record-breaking heat pushed power demand to record highs across large swathes of China.
Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
14 Aug 2025
Last year, China started construction on an estimated 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, enough to power the entire UK twice over.
What an ‘ambitious’ 2035 electricity target looks like for China
11 Aug 2025
China’s power sector is both the world’s largest emitter and the largest source of clean-energy growth, making it essential to global climate efforts.
Tens of thousands evacuated as torrential rains drench China
11 Aug 2025
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as heavy rains batter southern China, flooding homes and triggering landslides.
China’s solar panel exports fall 3% in June, report shows
7 Aug 2025
Chinese photovoltaic panel exports declined three percent in June from the previous month, mainly because of shrinking demand from the Asia-Pacific region.
China updates green taxonomy to increase energy transition finance
7 Aug 2025
China has updated its green taxonomy as part of the country’s efforts to strengthen its net-zero transition ambitions and reduce fragmentation.
At least 30 killed and several missing as heavy rains and floods lash northern China
30 Jul 2025
Thousands of people were evacuated as the region, including the capital Beijing, braced for more rainfall overnight.
China's carbon emissions may have peaked thanks to renewables push
28 Jul 2025
Climate experts say China's carbon emissions may have peaked, which could affect global climate targets, the fight against global warming – and the Australian coal industry.
China embarks on world's largest hydropower dam, capital markets cheer
22 Jul 2025
China's Premier Li Qiang announced construction had begun on what will be the world's largest hydropower dam, on the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau, at an estimated cost of at least $170 billion.
EU wants to see China take more ambitious climate action
15 Jul 2025
The world needs China to show more leadership on climate action, highlighting the importance of cutting planet-heating emissions and reducing the Chinese economy's reliance on coal.
Rivers in southwest China breach warning levels, with thousands evacuated
14 Jul 2025
Twenty-five rivers in southwestern China exceeded safe levels, after more than 10,000 people were evacuated as the remnants of former typhoon Danas converged with East Asian monsoon rains.
Regions in China take steps to ensure power supply amid heatwave-driven record demand
10 Jul 2025
China is battling intense heatwaves across multiple regions in recent days, with temperatures surpassing 40C in some areas, triggering yellow heat warnings and high-temperature health risk warnings.
China solar and wind installations break more world records
7 Jul 2025
China is leading the world in new solar and wind installations and doing so at a record-shattering pace.
Central Chinese cities fight floods unleashed by record rain
4 Jul 2025
A record summer downpour in China's central province of Hubei dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours on the city of Xianfeng, prompting authorities to move 18,000 people to safety, shut schools, and suspend bus services.
Floods swamp cities in Southwest China with more storms due
26 Jun 2025
Citizens in Guizhou and other parts of southern China have been swamped by days of record-breaking rainfall as the East Asia monsoon kicked into high gear over the past week.
China’s oil demand will peak earlier than expected, IEA says
19 Jun 2025
China’s oil demand will stop growing earlier than expected, reinforcing the outlook for a global peak and prolonged supply surplus this decade, the International Energy Agency said.
China's approvals of coal power plants grow after 2024 decline
11 Jun 2025
China approved 11.29 gigawatts of new coal power plants in the first three months of 2025, already exceeding the 10.34 GW approved in the first half of 2024.
China's ecology ministry to set up 100 new key labs in eight research fields by 2035
5 Jun 2025
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China plans to establish around 100 new key laboratories covering eight major research areas over the next ten years to enhance the country's environmental science and technology level.
What is China’s ‘Shenzen model’ for low-carbon transition in cities?
4 Jun 2025
Wandering the streets of Shenzhen, a city which has earned the title of China’s “first city of ‘new-energy vehicles’” (NEVs), you will not miss the scene of numerous NEVs parking under slogans promoting “green and low carbon” lifestyles.
For the first time, China invests more in wind and solar than coal overseas
29 May 2025
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, long derided for its heavy carbon footprint, was dominated by wind and solar power projects for the first time from 2022 to 2023, according to a new analysis. But coal plants financed in earlier years are still coming online.
As Brazilian president visits China, $1 billion sustainable fuel deal announced
16 May 2025
Brazil announced two Chinese partnerships on Monday, including a $1 billion investment by China's Envision Energy to produce sustainable aviation fuel, as the country's president visits China.
Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time
16 May 2025
For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth.
China’s electric vehicle industry is preparing to take on the world. Is America ready?
7 May 2025
his year’s Shanghai auto show has a clear message for visitors: China is now a global leader in innovation, and it wants the world to know.
Xi commits China to full climate plan but emissions-cutting ambition still unclear
30 Apr 2025
The Chinese president told fellow global leaders that the country’s updated climate plan would cover all economic sectors and greenhouse gases.
China says wind and solar electricity capacity exceeds thermal for first time
29 Apr 2025
China's wind and solar energy capacity has surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time, the national energy body said Friday.
China can greatly reduce its reliance on coal, but probably won’t
3 Apr 2025
Even though solar and wind power are growing at a blistering pace.
China to expand carbon trading market to steel, cement and aluminium
27 Mar 2025
China released plans on Wednesday to expand its carbon trading market into the steel, cement and aluminium smelting industries, a move that will require an additional 1,500 firms to purchase credits to cover their emissions, the environment ministry said.
China's BYD launches EV charging system it says works nearly as fast as a fill up
19 Mar 2025
China's energy and auto giant BYD has announced an ultra fast EV charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps.
China announces plans for major renewable projects to tackle climate change
6 Mar 2025
China said on Wednesday it would develop a package of major projects to tackle climate change as it moves to bring its carbon dioxide emissions to a peak before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.
China plays key role on climate change, may be looked to for additional leadership, COP30 president says
5 Mar 2025
China has a very important role to play in tackling climate change and others may look to the Asian country for additional leadership in the field, COP30 President-Designate Andre Aranha Correa do Lago said on Thursday.
China missed key climate target last year
4 Mar 2025
China missed a key climate target in 2024 and emissions in the world's second-largest economy rose slightly as coal remained dominant despite record renewable additions, official data showed Friday.
China aims to eliminate severe air pollution this year
28 Feb 2025
China aims to effectively eliminate severe air pollution by the end of 2025, a senior environment official said, as authorities ramp up efforts in pollution control and emissions reduction in the "battle for blue skies."
China's clean energy investments nearing scale of global fossil investments
20 Feb 2025
China's clean energy investments in 2024 amounted to 6.8tn yuan ($940bn), nearing the scale of $1.12tn global investment in fossil fuels, according to a new analysis by UK-based Carbon Brief.
China's 2024 coal projects counter climate goals: report
14 Feb 2025
China last year began construction on projects with the greatest combined coal power capacity since 2015, jeopardising the country's goal to peak carbon emissions by 2030, according to a report published Thursday.
China imposes 15% tariffs on coal, LNG in response to Trump's tariffs
5 Feb 2025
China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google on Tuesday, just minutes after a sweeping levy on Chinese products imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump took effect.
China to launch one-kilometre-wide solar farm into space
27 Jan 2025
Construction of a giant celestial solar farm is underway in China, with a scale comparable to creating a "Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth".
Top emitter China tells World Court that UN treaties cover states' climate obligations
6 Dec 2024
China told the top U.N. court on Tuesday that existing U.N. treaties should provide the basis for its advisory opinion on states' legal obligations to fight global warming and address the consequences of their historic contributions to it.
China’s CO2 emissions have peaked or will in 2025, say 44% of experts in survey
28 Nov 2024
Research reflects rising optimism about country’s green transition as it takes leading position on climate action.
China hopes US will continue climate change collaboration whoever wins election, official says
5 Nov 2024
China hopes the United States will be able to continue to cooperate with other countries on climate change, whatever the outcome of the presidential election next week, a senior government official said on Friday.
China's Q3 economic losses from natural calamities surge
25 Oct 2024
China's third-quarter economic losses due to natural disasters, from super typhoons to floods, more than doubled from the first six months of 2024, reaching $32.3 billion.
Four lessons from 30 years of US-China climate cooperation
24 Oct 2024
A look back reveals four crucial lessons for future engagement and global progress.
China’s accelerating green transition
27 Sep 2024
Two-thirds of all new solar and wind power projects are based in the country. But to wean industry off coal, Beijing needs to set up a real energy market.
How to convince Beijing of the case for stronger climate targets
12 Sep 2024
An ambitious NDC would boost China’s economy, win it recognition as a responsible global power – and keep its people safer from climate disasters.
China coal plant approvals plunge as green power grows: Study
28 Aug 2024
China approved the building of nine gigawatts of coal power generation in the first half of 2024, down by more than 80 per cent compared with a year earlier as the nation adds renewable energy capacity in record amounts.
China is backing off coal power plant approvals after a 2022-23 surge that alarmed climate experts
22 Aug 2024
Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped sharply in the first half of this year, after a flurry of permits in the previous two years raised concern about the government’s commitment to limiting climate change.
China reports record high flood incidents with frequent, heavy rainfall across north and south
21 Aug 2024
Since the start of this year's flood season, China's major rivers have experienced 25 significant flood events, the highest number recorded since data collection began in 1998.
Darwin methane leak ‘covered up’ by gas companies and regulators
Tue 2 Sep 2025
At the heart of the project that heralded northern Australia’s gas boom — Darwin’s first liquefied natural gas plant — was a storage tank that operators hailed as a major feat of engineering.
We used to stash gold in Fort Knox. What if we did the same with carbon?
Fri 29 Aug 2025
If we could convince the masses that waste carbon dioxide is sacred and worth hoarding — like gold — one of our most existential problems might solve itself.
EU’s record wildfire emissions highlight threat to forest carbon sinks
Mon 1 Sep 2025
As carbon emissions from forest fires spike in Europe, experts warn that wildfires pose a growing risk to national efforts to meet climate goals.
UK Conservatives pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea
Tue 2 Sep 2025
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
Singapore seals carbon credit deal with Thailand, its first South-east Asian partner
Thu 28 Aug 2025
The agreement, the eighth for Singapore, helps both nations meet climate targets under the Paris Agreement, directing finance to Thai projects.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?
Tue 2 Sep 2025
Half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in Liberia, but in 2024, it lost more than 38,000 hectares (94,000 acres) of humid primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch.
Lessons from the Incas: How llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change
Thu 28 Aug 2025
New research suggests solutions may lie in environmental knowledge that the Incas and their predecessors developed centuries ago.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
