International: Europe
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.
Berlin’s referendum on climate neutrality by 2030 fails
28 Mar 2023
A referendum in Berlin on making the German capital climate neutral by 2030 failed to garner sufficient support.
Berlin vote could turbocharge German capital’s climate plans
27 Mar 2023
A referendum on Sunday, which has attracted considerable financial support from U.S.-based philanthropists, calls for Berlin to become climate neutral by 2030.
EU governments sued for violating human rights through climate inaction
27 Mar 2023
Citizens affected by climate change are suing the governments of more than 30 European countries in three separate cases before the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that state inaction has violated their human rights.
ECB starts disclosing climate impact of portfolios on road to Paris-alignment
24 Mar 2023
The European Central Bank (ECB) has published its first climate-related financial disclosures, which provide information on its portfolios’ carbon footprint and exposure to climate risks, as well as on climate-related governance, strategy and risk management.
Greece must make up for lost time in climate adaptation
17 Mar 2023
A string of devastating wildfires and floods has forced Greece to step up its lagging climate adaptation efforts.
How to promote green industry beyond subsidies
17 Mar 2023
The leaked draft of the Net Zero Industry Act rightly highlights a need to plan better the necessary industrial transformation of the EU. It considers a host of measures aimed at promoting specific industries, including streamlined permits, access to public and private finance and priority for public procurement.
Older Swiss women take government to court over climate
16 Mar 2023
Elisabeth Stern was born in rural northeastern Switzerland in the 1940s in the shadow of huge glaciers.
Germany is failing to reach its climate goals
16 Mar 2023
In a press conference on 9 March the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, presented his plan for accelerating the shift away from fossil fuel energy in a so-called “workshop report”.
French TV transforms weather forecasts to include climate change context
15 Mar 2023
State TV channels France 2 and France 3 have changed their daily weather forecasts into "weather and climate bulletins" as pat of France Televisions’ efforts to raise awareness about climate change. Presenters are showing not only what weather to expect, but the reasons behind it.
Dutch farmers, climate activists hold protests in The Hague
13 Mar 2023
More than 10,000 Dutch farmers protested in The Hague on Saturday against the government's plans to limit nitrogen emissions.
Denmark injects carbon dioxide into undersea storage in world first
9 Mar 2023
European companies have injected carbon dioxide below Denmark’s seabed for the first time in an ambitious project that could become a key component in the fight against climate change.
Spanish wind giant commits to 4GW of new renewables a year, including in Asia Pacific
8 Mar 2023
Spain-based wind energy giant EDP Renewables has announced it will invest €20 billion over the next four years in an effort to add more than 4GW per year of new utility-scale solar and wind.
EU rewrites climate diplomacy deal to resolve nuclear sticking point
8 Mar 2023
European Union countries intend to push for a global phasing out of fossil fuels among their climate diplomacy priorities this year, which the bloc hopes to approve this week after rewriting a contentious section on nuclear energy.
Climate change to cost Germany up to €900 billion by 2050 - study
7 Mar 2023
Extreme weather caused by climate change could cost Germany up to 900 billion euros in cumulative economic damage by mid-century, a study showed on Monday, as Europe's biggest economy seeks climate adaptation measures to cut the damages bill.
Making polluters pay could fix Australia’s climate problem – and its budget
Wed 4 Feb 2026
A new report shows how making polluters pay will not only diminish the threat from climate change, but it can also help restore the budget and the economy.
U.S. could issue general license for oil companies to produce in Venezuela this week
Thu 5 Feb 2026
The Trump administration could issue a general license as soon as this week for companies to produce oil and gas in Venezuela, a person familiar with the plan told CNBC on Tuesday.
‘Rush’ for new coal in China hits record high in 2025 as climate deadline looms
Wed 4 Feb 2026
Proposals to build coal-fired plants in China reached a record high in 2025, finds a new study.
A UK climate security report backed by the intelligence services was quietly buried – a pattern we’ve seen many times before
Thu 5 Feb 2026
Last autumn, a UK government report warned that climate-driven ecosystem collapse could lead to food shortages, mass migration, political extremism and even nuclear conflict. The report was never officially launched.
The climate and energy implication hidden in Mark Carney’s Davos speech
26 Jan 2026
In a speech bound for the history books, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described a “rupture” in the world order and called for middle powers like Canada to stand up to bullies.
Declared a terrorist for bringing renewable power to Philippine communities
Mon 2 Feb 2026
Accusing activists of having links to terrorism has led to non-profit funds being frozen and local climate projects being delayed or scrapped.
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore and seabirds
19 Dec 2025
Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
18 Dec 2025
Region known as ‘world’s refrigerator’ is heating up as much as four times as quickly as global average, Noaa experts say.
Climate change could lead to 500,000 ‘additional’ malaria deaths in Africa by 2050
30 Jan 2026
Climate change could lead to half a million more deaths from malaria in Africa over the next 25 years, according to new research.
Argentina fires ravage pristine Patagonia forests, fueling criticism of Milei’s austerity
Wed 4 Feb 2026
The wildfires, among the worst to hit the drought-stricken Patagonia region in decades, have devastated more than 45,000 hectares (174 square miles) of Argentina’s forests in the last month and a half, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists.
UN risks 'imminent financial collapse', secretary general warns
Tue 3 Feb 2026
The United Nations is at risk of "imminent financial collapse" due to member states not paying their fees, the body's head has warned.
