International: Europe
More than 1,500 arrested during Netherlands climate protests
30 May 2023
Activists blocked a section of a motorway in the centre of the city during the afternoon, in protest against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies.
UN advises against offsets for carbon removal technologies
29 May 2023
Billions of dollars are pouring into tech-based solutions to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but the UNFCCC says they are unproven and pose unknown risks.
Irish farmers convert ocean carbon to fertiliser via seaweed
26 May 2023
UK start-up Carbon Kapture has joined forces with Irish shellfish farmers to launch a seaweed farm, absorbing CO₂ and enriching soil with converted biochar.
France bans short-haul flights in effort to fight climate change
25 May 2023
France has formally banned domestic flights on short routes that can be covered by train in less than two-and-a-half hours in a move aimed at reducing airline emissions.
Climate change: Ministers lack urgency on flood risks, critics say
23 May 2023
Welsh ministers have been accused of lacking urgency on flood risks due to climate change, after postponing planning rule changes twice.
Italy's Deadly Floods: Climate Change's All-Or-Nothing Weather Extremes
23 May 2023
In a changing climate, more rain is coming, but it’s falling on fewer days in less useful and more dangerous downpours.
Norway under pressure to scale back fossil fuel expansion plans
19 May 2023
The Norwegian government is facing growing pressure to scale back its huge global fossil fuel expansion plans – including the development of a controversial new oilfield in the North Sea.
Meteorologists are the new targets in global social media misinformation
16 May 2023
Once trusted faces on the news, meteorologists now brave threats, insults and slander online from conspiracy theorists and climate change deniers who accuse them of faking or even fixing the weather.
Ukraine’s already planning its green rebuilding
16 May 2023
Ukrainian activists, scientists and architects are pushing for a postwar recovery unlike any in history, with a focus on climate resilience and clean energy.
Paris agreement’s police force begins with rebuke to Vatican
15 May 2023
A committee set up to pressure governments into complying with the Paris Agreement has issued its first warnings, rebuking the Vatican City for not submitting a climate plan.
EU Parliament advances methane reduction with Fit for 55 legislation
12 May 2023
The new initiative is designed to help the EU achieve its climate goals and improve air quality.
Sweden to pave world’s first permanent e-road for EV charging while driving
12 May 2023
As countries across Europe scale up efforts towards fossil fuel-free mobility, Sweden is working on the world’s first permanent electric road — allowing electric cars and trucks to charge while driving.
Climate change raising heat risks for workers: experts
11 May 2023
Rising global temperatures are increasing the risk of workers dying or becoming disabled from labouring in extreme heat, an international conference has been told.
New tech to turn hydrogen and CO2 into lower-carbon aviation fuel announced
11 May 2023
Honeywell International Inc (HON.O) has announced announced a new technology to produce lower-carbon aviation fuel from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide captured from industry, which can help cut greenhouse gas emissions from aviation, one of the hardest sectors to electrify and decarbonise.
Greenpeace sues Italian energy company ENI over climate change
11 May 2023
Greenpeace and an environmental coalition including 12 Italian citizens are suing Italian energy company ENI, accusing it of knowingly contributing to climate change.
Sweden lowers fossil fuel reduction targets, risks 2030 climate goals
9 May 2023
Sweden’s ruling coalition decided on Sunday to lower the minimum fossil fuel emission reduction targets, a move criticised by the opposition as Sweden risks its 2030 climate goals, while the influential right-wing populist Sweden Democrats claim “victory”.
Germany’s top Green slams radical climate protesters
8 May 2023
Germany's most senior Green politician, Robert Habeck, has slammed radical activists who glue themselves to the ground to highlight the climate emergency, saying such protests are "unhelpful" and "downright wrong."
April heat in western Med 'almost impossible without climate change'
8 May 2023
The extreme heat that engulfed the Iberian peninsula and parts of North Africa last week would have been "almost impossible without climate change", an international scientific study found on Friday.
Ireland commits €169 million for climate transition in peat-dependent "midlands"
4 May 2023
Ireland is committing €169 million to help the country’s so-called ‘midlands’ to transition away from the carbon-intensive fossil energy industry.
Climate group hails 'productive' meeting with minister
3 May 2023
Climate activists from the Last Generation group say a meeting with German Transport Minister Volker Wissing was productive. However, there appears to be no end in sight to protests that have blocked Berlin's roads.
Irish SUV sales 'cancelling out' emissions benefits of EVs
3 May 2023
Increased sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have “not made a dent” in transport emissions, a leading expert has said, as he called for SUVs “to be phased out of the market”.
Germany hopes to help climate with discount travel card
2 May 2023
Germany launches on Monday a new flat-rate public transport ticket valid across the country, but the €49 (NZ$87) price point has raised doubts about the pass's potential impact.
German climate activists disrupt traffic in central Berlin
28 Apr 2023
Climate activists continued their protests in Berlin on Thursday, blocking more than a dozen streets by gluing themselves to the ground.
Europe's ETS sets tougher target
27 Apr 2023
EU countries have given the green light to the biggest overhaul to date of the bloc’s carbon market, raising costs for polluting industries and increasing its emissions reduction target from 43% to 62% by 2030.
Germans willing to sacrifice for climate
27 Apr 2023
Two-thirds of people in Germany said they were willing to make personal sacrifices to fight climate change, according to a YouGov poll, further demonstrating the varied attitudes toward lifestyle changes for the environment among European Union countries.
Europe’s biggest petrochemical plant in 30 years a ‘carbon bomb’, court to hear
26 Apr 2023
Environment groups challenge the decision to approve a £3.5bn Ineos facility in Antwerp, saying it will make the climate crisis worse.
EU, Norway to bolster clean energy ties, with focus on carbon and hydrogen
26 Apr 2023
The EU and Norway have established a Green Alliance to strengthen their joint climate action, environmental protection efforts and cooperation on clean energy.
Border tax on carbon dioxide offers huge opportunity to fight climate change, say researchers
26 Apr 2023
A tax on CO2 emissions from products entering the EU offers unprecedented opportunities in the fight against global warming.
Record breaking heatwaves cause 15,000 deaths in Europe
24 Apr 2023
Record-breaking heatwaves over the last few years, affecting the Europen continent and parts of China during the summer, have caused nearly 15,700 deaths, an analysis published by the United Nations Agency for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology, and Geophysics, claimed.
Earth Day — climate, protest and policy in 2023
24 Apr 2023
As activists mark Earth Day this Saturday, it feels like the climate coverage in the first months of 2023 has been dominated by extreme weather events including droughts, fires and floods, and by images of angry protesters demanding action. But some initiatives offer a glimmer of hope and possible ways to tackle climate emergencies.
World’s first carbon import tax gets green light
21 Apr 2023
The European Parliament has approved the world’s first “carbon tax” for imported goods, imposing tariffs based on the amount of emissions generated in their production.
Austria's 'Climate Shakira' has come up with a novel way to try and escape deportation
21 Apr 2023
"It is sometimes quite painful. Especially when you have glued your hand already on several occasions as I did then the skin irritation gets greater each time."
The 'ninjas' fighting climate change denial on Twitter
20 Apr 2023
Secretive internet vigilantes have made it their mission to fight climate change denial on Twitter. But, as a vicious information war rages online, do they risk becoming the very trolls they claim to be targeting?
EU Parliament adopts 'holy trinity' of climate laws
19 Apr 2023
The European Parliament has approved three climate laws that form the heart of EU efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
Germany reaches 2022 CO2 targets, but not thanks to climate measures
19 Apr 2023
Germany met its emissions reduction targets for 2022, according to preliminary data from the country’s Climate Expert Council (Expertenrat fur Klimafragen).
Climate council warns Germany against 'pushing off' responsibility to Europe
18 Apr 2023
Germany must increase efforts to reduce emissions even as the European Union introduces stricter climate legislation, said Brigitte Knopf, deputy chairwoman of the country’s Council of Experts on Climate Change.
EU exit from climate-killing energy treaty looms
18 Apr 2023
Denmark joins a spate of EU nations including Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands who are exiting the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an investment pact weaponised by big emitters to sue governments — most recently for phasing out fossil fuels.
Offshore wind giant Ørsted turns to liquid air energy storage
13 Apr 2023
Danish offshore wind energy giant Ørsted is planning to test the value of co-locating offshore wind farms with long-term liquid air energy storage systems.
Swedish climate minister dismisses far-right’s biofuel threats
13 Apr 2023
Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari dismissed threats of political crisis from the far-right Sweden Democrats, who want the currently undecided government to reduce the number of biofuels that must be blended into petrol and diesel from the current 30% mandate to virtually zero.
Amsterdam’s ‘smart’ blue-green roofs reduce urban flooding
12 Apr 2023
The city scaled up the planting of self-watering residential rooftop gardens that mitigate flooding and lower temperatures.
EU energy experts see hydrogen/CO2 e-fuels as the future
6 Apr 2023
While hopes remain high that the evolving hydrogen economy will eventually lead to a point at which hydrogen fuelled vehicles and aircraft will one day be common, there are those who believe it is more likely that hydrogen will be fuelling vehicles only when combined with CO2 to form e-fuels.
Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and energy transition targets
5 Apr 2023
Germany aims to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045. It has set the preliminary targets of cutting emissions by at least 65% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, and 88% by 2040.
Climate activists turn landmark Rome fountain black
3 Apr 2023
Climate activists in Italy turned a Baroque-style fountain at the foot of Rome's Spanish Steps black on Saturday, in a protest they said evoked an "end of the world" scenario.
Private jet flights in Europe soar to record levels — and most were ultra-short journeys
31 Mar 2023
A private jet aviation boom shows no signs of slowing.
Swedish right-wing government puts country on ‘wrong’ climate path
31 Mar 2023
Sweden has increased its greenhouse gas emissions while other EU member states are reducing them since the new right-wing government, in office for five months, changed its tack on climate policy.
Swiss women launch landmark lawsuit in Europe claiming weak climate action breaches their human rights
30 Mar 2023
A group of older Swiss women are taking their government to Europe’s top human rights court, claiming its failure to act on the climate crisis is violating their human rights.
EU plans early carbon market auctions from July
29 Mar 2023
The European Union plans to conduct early carbon market auctions, starting from July, to raise extra funds to help countries quit Russian gas and cut emissions, the European Commission said on Monday evening.
Finnish startup raises €1.8 million to make manufacturing concrete carbon negative
29 Mar 2023
Joensuu-based Carbonaide, a VTT spin-out company, has raised €1.8 million in seed funding, which will be used to integrate their CO2 curing technology into an automated production line in Hollola, Finland.
What role can citizens’ assemblies play in solving the climate crisis?
29 Mar 2023
Political scientist Rikki Dean has done research on climate assemblies. In his opinion, democracies are struggling to cope with global warming with these citizen panels alone.
Scientists have found which gender is likely to have the biggest carbon footprint
28 Mar 2023
Gender differences exist in most areas of life. But it's now been proven that your carbon footprint is also influenced by your sex.
Australian rainforests no longer a carbon sink – study
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Australia's tropical rainforests are among the first in the world to start emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb, scientists said Thursday, linking the "very concerning" trend to climate change.
Climate scientists and republican lawyers are taking aim at Big Tech’s emissions
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Technology companies have long been one of the biggest investors in clean energy, but new accounting rules could upend that.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
Thu 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.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Thu 16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Familiar tensions emerge at the Pacific Islands Forum
26 Sep 2025
With China-Taiwan rivalry, China-Western competition, and big carbon emitters at odds with the islands on climate policy, there is plenty of tension to go around.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
Mon 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".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
Tue 14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Wed 15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
UN agency says CO2 levels hit record high last year, causing more extreme weather
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilisation and “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather.
