International: China
China’s BEV trucks and the end of diesel’s dominance
Thu 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.
China floods the world with gasoline cars it can't sell at home
Wed 3 Dec 2025
While Western nations focus on the competitive threat of Chinese EVs, a different challenge is reshaping the auto industry. Beijing's legacy automakers are saturating emerging and second-tier markets with fossil-fuel vehicles – often undercutting their foreign partners.
How China silences environmental reporters beyond its borders
1 Dec 2025
Journalists who report on the harms caused by China’s overseas infrastructure buildout in Africa face intimidation, surveillance and police pressure.
China's new coal plant permits set for four-year low in 2025, analysis finds
27 Nov 2025
China's new coal plant permits for 2025 are on track to fall to a four-year low, a new Greenpeace analysis showed on Tuesday, indicating that growing use of renewables is cutting into demand for new coal plants.
China’s diesel trucks are shifting to electric. That could change global LNG and diesel demand
21 Nov 2025
China is replacing its diesel trucks with electric models faster than expected, potentially reshaping global fuel demand and the future of heavy transport.
China’s top envoy blasts EU climate goals and Trump’s ‘bad example’
20 Nov 2025
The European Union’s new pollution-cutting targets are insufficient, China’s climate envoy told POLITICO on the sidelines of this year’s COP30 conference while also condemning the “bad example” set by the absent United States.
China’s carbon plateau: A turning point or a temporary pause?
19 Nov 2025
For a quarter century, China has been the dominant driver of rising global carbon emissions. Its rapid industrialisation, swelling electricity demand, and unprecedented construction boom have shaped the world’s carbon trajectory more than any other country.
Analysis: China’s CO2 emissions have now been flat or falling for 18 months
12 Nov 2025
China’s carbon dioxide emissions were unchanged from a year earlier in the third quarter of 2025, extending a flat or falling trend that started in March 2024.
Why climate change now threatens China’s future
4 Nov 2025
Extreme weather is hurting its economy and worrying its leaders.
How ‘vehicle-to-grid’ technology could boost China’s electricity system
31 Oct 2025
China’s surging electric vehicles ownership – now exceeding 25.5m – is opening the door to a new technology that can help to enhance the flexibility of electricity supply.
The Yangtze River is becoming the world’s largest electrified trade corridor
30 Oct 2025
The Gezhouba, a new 13,000-ton all-electric bulk carrier launched in Yichang, is more than a technical milestone. It is a sign that the electrification of inland shipping is moving from concept to inevitability.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
China carbon prices hit two-year low as market faces oversupply pressures
14 Oct 2025
Carbon credit prices in China have fallen to their lowest point since mid-2023, pressured by an excess of supply and tepid demand amid ongoing adjustments to the national emissions trading system.
China accelerates oil reserve site build amid stockpiling drive
9 Oct 2025
China is building oil reserve sites at a rapid clip as part of a campaign to boost crude stockpiles that increased in urgency after Russia's Ukraine invasion upended global energy flows and has accelerated this year.
China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship
6 Oct 2025
China’s campaign to contain the expansion of deserts due to intensive farming, grazing, mining and climate change has increased available pastures, but also “erodes traditional farming practices and culture.”
China calls EU hypocritical over criticism of climate goal
1 Oct 2025
The EU climate chief's criticism of China's new climate pledges shows "double standards and selective blindness," China's foreign ministry said on Friday, accusing the bloc of being slow to act on its own climate targets.
What does China’s new Paris Agreement pledge mean for climate action?
29 Sep 2025
President Xi Jinping has personally pledged to cut China’s greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, while “striving to do better”.
China makes landmark pledge to cut its climate emissions
25 Sep 2025
China, the world's biggest source of planet-warming gases, has for the first time committed to an absolute target to cut its emissions.
Will China and the BRICS fill the ‘leadership gap’ on climate change?
22 Sep 2025
Amid a rapidly fracturing geopolitical order, there have been growing calls for China to “step into [the] leadership gap” left by the US on climate change.
China aims to nearly double battery storage by 2027 in $35 billion plan
16 Sep 2025
China is looking to almost double its so-called new energy storage capacity to 180 gigawatts (GW) by 2027, according to an industry plan announced by authorities on Friday.
China on course to peak fossil fuel power as soon as this year, reports say
11 Sep 2025
The Asian nation’s energy transition is entering a new phase, with soaring renewables reducing demand for fossil fuels, analysis shows.
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.
What Victoria auditor-general's report actually says about so-called 'transition chaos'
Today 11:00am
Mainstream media loves a electricity blackout scare, but in the wake of this week’s report from the Victorian auditor-general on the state of the state’s transition to renewables, the headline hysteria hit new heights.
Fossil-fuel billionaires bought up millions of shares after meeting with top Trump officials
Today 11:00am
Co-founders’ acquisition of Venture Global shares before key permit granted draws scrutiny as pair deny wrongdoing
Spain announces $1.5 billion package to boost electric vehicle market
Fri 5 Dec 2025
Spain's plan includes 400 million euros in direct subsidies in 2026 for consumers to buy EVs.
UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record
Fri 5 Dec 2025
Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recorded.
Canada rolls back climate rules in energy deal with Alberta
1 Dec 2025
Under the agreement, the federal government will scrap a planned emissions cap on the oil and gas sector and drop rules on clean electricity.
Asia flood death toll surpasses 1,500 as calls grow to fight deforestation
Today 11:00am
The death toll from last week’s catastrophic floods and landslides in parts of Asia surged past 1,500 Thursday as rescue teams raced to reach survivors isolated by the disaster with hundreds of people still unaccounted for across the region.
Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global
Today 11:00am
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.
In blow to Lula, Brazil Congress revives controversial environmental bill
Tue 2 Dec 2025
Brazil's conservative-led Congress on Thursday reinstated much of a bill that makes it easier for companies to secure environmental permits, infuriating the leftist government and green groups.
Analysis: Why COP30’s ‘tripling adaptation finance’ target is less ambitious than it seems
Fri 5 Dec 2025
One of the headline outcomes to emerge from COP30 was a new target to “at least triple” finance for climate adaptation in developing countries by 2035.
