International: Asia
India's cities look to become climate-smarter
28 Oct 2020
India's southern city of Hyderabad is known as a high-tech hub - but its infrastructure is looking increasingly dated in an era of strengthening climate change impacts.
Japan to be carbon-neutral by 2050
27 Oct 2020
Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said the country will become carbon neutral by 2050, heralding a bolder approach to tackling the climate emergency by the world’s third-biggest economy.
South Korea sets net-zero goal
1 Oct 2020
South Korea has declared a climate crisis, and established a non-binding goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, making it the second East Asian nation this week to set a tougher climate target.
Young activists go to court over climate change
7 Sep 2020
Six young Portuguese activists are taking a European human rights case against 33 countries in the latest legal effort to force governments to step up their fight against climate change.
Doubts over green bonds’ impact in Asia’s low-carbon transition
28 Aug 2020
A new study has uncovered scant disclosure by green bond issuers of their environmental impact, and a lack of social safeguards to protect communities from unintended consequences of financed projects.
Coronavirus forces tourism rethink in world's most visited city
24 Aug 2020
With the outlook for urban tourism deeply uncertain, Thai authorities have a chance to adopt a more sustainable model.
Industry push-back delays Japan's decarbonisation
18 Aug 2020
Fossil-fuel producers and high greenhouse-gas emitters in Japan are fiercely lobbying against more ambitious emissions and energy policy that would imperil their carbon-heavy, energy-intensive business, undermining the country's response to the climate crisis, new research has revealed.
Vietnam’s energy policy marks turning point for coal
23 Jul 2020
As other countries pull out of Vietnam’s coal sector, Chinese banks have become the lender of last resort for struggling projects.
South Korea backtracks on green promise
20 Jul 2020
For South Korea it seems, climate care is a case of going green at home – and doing the opposite overseas.
Japan to launch ‘green recovery’ platform
4 Jun 2020
Japan wants to bolster global momentum for climate action by hosting an online platform and high-level political event on greening the post-coronavirus economic recovery.
Green New Deal turns South Korea from climate villain to model
25 May 2020
The country’s youngest MP is on a mission, inspired by Greta Thunberg, as climate moves up political agenda.
Bangladesh to double fossil fuel imports
15 May 2020
Bangladesh is expected to double its imports of fossil fuels in the coming decade and will miss its 2020 clean-energy target.
Plastic piles up as covid sidelines pollution fight
12 May 2020
Green groups worry about a plastic "onslaught" in Southeast Asia as home deliveries during lockdowns add to mountains of waste.
South Korea backs $2b bailout of coal company
8 May 2020
The South Korean government is backing a $2 billion bailout of the country’s biggest coal plant manufacturer, despite promises to end coal financing.
Indonesia puts new jungle capital on hold
28 Apr 2020
The Indonesian government’s plan to relocate the country’s capital from Java to the jungles of Borneo has hit a wall.
South Korea to implement Green New Deal
17 Apr 2020
South Korea is on track to set a 2050 carbon neutrality goal and end coal financing after its ruling Democratic Party won an absolute majority in the country’s parliamentary elections on Wednesday.
Asia Pacific degradation worries UN
2 Apr 2020
A surge in Asia Pacific carbon emissions and the degradation of its environmental resources is alarming, says the UN.
Campaigners attack Japan's 'shameful' climate plans
31 Mar 2020
Japan has laid out its plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris agreement in the run-up to UN climate talks this year, becoming the first large economy to do so.
Southeast Asian mangrove destruction is rampant
20 Mar 2020
Southeast Asia’s aggressive development to spur economic growth are stripping the region’s coasts of mangrove forests at rates faster than anywhere.
India finally takes climate crisis seriously
19 Mar 2020
With financial losses and a heavy death toll from climate-related disasters constantly rising, India is at last focusing on the dangers of global warming.
South Korea wants Green New Deal
18 Mar 2020
South Korea's ruling party has announced its ambition for the nation to adopt a Green New Deal and deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Bali does battle with plague of plastic
24 Feb 2020
Indonesia is the world’s second-largest ocean plastic polluter, after China.
Singapore joins drive to phase out fossil fuel vehicles
24 Feb 2020
Climate-vulnerable Singapore will part ways with fossil fuel vehicles within the next two decades and throw its weight behind cleaner vehicles.
Malaysia’s banks buck trend against coal
19 Feb 2020
Malaysia’s major banks are bucking a global trend toward the decarbonisation of the finance industry by continuing to finance new coal-fired power projects in Southeast Asia, a new report has found.
Mining leads to flooding in coal capital
11 Feb 2020
Major flooding from just a few hours of heavy rain in Samarinda, Indonesia’s coal-mining capital, has underscored the severity of the environmental degradation being carried out by the industry, officials say.
Japan races to build coal-burning power plants
7 Feb 2020
Just beyond the windows of Satsuki Kanno’s apartment overlooking Tokyo Bay, a behemoth from a bygone era will soon rise: a coal-burning power plant, part of a buildup of coal power that is unheard-of for an advanced economy.
Asian countries spurn and burn waste imports
3 Feb 2020
Two years after China’s ban on other countries' waste, Southeast Asian nations are struggling to deal with import surge, and are enacting bans of their own.
China, India face crticism over potent pollutants
29 Jan 2020
A new study suggests that China and India might not be living up to recent pledges to dramatically reduce emissions of a greenhouse gas nearly 13,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
City buses might moove to dung-drive
29 Jan 2020
Not in their wildest dreams did the residents of Karachi’s Cattle Colony think that the filth they were living in for more than four decades would generate wealth as well as energy.
Indonesia forest fires cost $5.2 billion
13 Dec 2019
The total damage and economic loss from forest fires in Indonesia this year amounts to at least $5.2 billion, says the World Bank.
Big Energy boosts coal in Philippines
28 Nov 2019
Coal expansion by the Philippines’ biggest energy companies could lead to the fossil fuel’s share of the energy mix growing from 52 per cent today to a whopping 75 per cent by 2025.
Vietnam has a remarkable wind-energy story
21 Nov 2019
Vietnam is rising as Southeast Asia’s new wind hero, with power capacity soon to dwarf that of all other Asean nations.
Myanmar hands over forests to oil palm producers
15 Nov 2019
Myanmar has handed out more than 400,000 hectares of oil palm concessions to 44 companies, some of the land overlapping with proposed national parks.
Coal is still king in Southeast Asia
10 Oct 2019
Not only will coal continue to be the dominant fuel source in power generation in Southeast Asia, its use will grow and peak in 2027 before slowing, according to a new study.
Can indonesia avoid a capital distaster?
6 Sep 2019
Indonesia will build a new capital city from scratch in a jungle-covered area with little to no infrastructure and it could be an environmental disaster.
Most Southeast Asia banks ignore climate crisis
27 Aug 2019
Most Southeast Asian banks are indifferent to climate change in their lending operations, a new report has found.
IKEA IDEA: Inspired firm aims to electrify a million boats
27 Aug 2019
A Singapore startup on a mission to replace a million polluting diesel-powered boats in Southeast Asia has been inspired by Ikea.
Singapore expects to pay $72b for climate peace of mind
21 Aug 2019
low-lying Singapore could spend $US72 billion or more over the next 50 to 100 years to adapt to climate change and rising sea levels, according to its prime minister.
Plastic, poverty and paradox ... the sad story of a great river
15 Aug 2019
India’s most sacred river is also its most polluted, with plastic a major culprit. Now moves are afoot to monitor the flow of rubbish and assess its link to poverty.
Southeast Asia drowning in electronic waste
7 Aug 2019
As awareness of the toxic fall-out of Southeast Asia's e-waste crisis grows, what's being done to defuse an environmental timebomb in the making?
At the garbage cafe, pay for your curry with plastic waste
31 Jul 2019
No money … no problem. Bring plastic waste and get a free curry at India's first “garbage café”.
Car craze brings gridlock and grumpiness to beaming Bhutan
26 Jul 2019
Booming car sales in Bhutan, famed for valuing Gross National Happiness over economic growth, are testing the good humour of the citizens.
Melting ice will hurt Southeast Asia
24 Jul 2019
Southeast Asia will be hardest hit by rising sea levels caused by melting and collapsing ice sheets.
Corruption and coal rule in Indonesia
16 Jul 2019
Prosecutors have indicted the head of a Indonesia's national power firm and other officials, raising hopes of a dirty energy clean-up.
Residents sue government over ‘world’s filthiest’ air
12 Jul 2019
A group of citizens is suing the Indonesian government, including the president, over the poor air quality in Jakarta, which in recent weeks has ranked as the worst in the world.
Leftover spy satellites reveal Himalayas melt
21 Jun 2019
US spy satellites that secretly kept watch over the Himalayas during the Cold War are helping researchers piece together the most detailed view yet of the region's accelerating ice loss.
Coal-dependent Japan sets neutral goal
14 Jun 2019
Heavy on tech, light on any plans to tackle its coal dependency, Japan has released its climate legislation.
Students must plant 10 trees to graduate
4 Jun 2019
The PhilippineS Senate has passed a law requiring all students to plant 10 trees in order to graduate.
Malaysia loses last male rhino
31 May 2019
The last male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia has died in a nature reserve on Borneo.
TREATED LIKE TRASH: Asians send back the West's rubbish
29 May 2019
South-east Asia has begun to push back against the deluge of plastic and electronic waste from the UK, US and Australia.
Five huge climate opportunities await the next Australian parliament – and it has the numbers to deliver
Mon 12 May 2025
Australians have returned an expanded Labor Party to government alongside a suite of climate-progressive independents. Meanwhile, the Coalition – which promoted nuclear energy and a slower renewables transition – suffered a historic defeat.
How business and finance are really talking about climate change
Tue 13 May 2025
To many, the real draw of the conference is the behind-the-scenes discussions—an opportunity for information gathering and dealmaking.
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.
Germany’s €100 billion green gamble: Inside the nation’s bold climate investment
Tue 13 May 2025
In the race for a net-zero future —Germany’s latest €100 billion climate investment package is so large it has been dubbed a "green bombshell."
Deadly April rainfall in US South and Midwest was intensified by climate change, scientists say
Mon 12 May 2025
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly rainfall in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and other states in early April and made it more likely to occur.
It’s time for Canada’s Mark Carney to think big on climate, experts say
30 Apr 2025
Even Carney’s climate background wasn’t enough to put climate action on center stage.
Nauru sells citizenship to help fund relocations as sea levels rise
27 Feb 2025
A new 'golden passport' scheme aims to raise funds to relocate people inland as climate change raises sea levels.
I just returned from Antarctica: climate change isn’t some far-off problem – it’s here and hitting hard
Tue 13 May 2025
Antarctica is often viewed as the last truly remote place on Earth – frozen, wild and untouched. But is it really as untouched as it seems?
Heat extremes in southern Africa might continue even if net-zero emissions are achieved
Tue 13 May 2025
Will reaching net zero have any effect on heat extremes, particularly in Africa?
Who has the right to decide what happens on indigenous lands?
7 May 2025
In Ecuador, Indigenous communities are fighting for stronger safeguards to protect their sovereignty as more oil drilling looms. A right to say no to unwanted development could revolutionize consultation processes used around the world.
Nations agree on carbon-pricing system to steer shipping towards net-zero
14 Apr 2025
Nations have agreed to introduce a worldwide carbon-pricing system for international shipping to drive the sector towards net-zero emissions by 2050.
