International: Africa
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
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.
African countries gear up for major push on climate innovation, climate financing and climate change laws
7 Oct 2025
A major topic of discussion at the summit was how to increase the money available to fund Africa’s adaptation to the new, rapidly heating climate.
15.2 million fake carbon credits were sold from the Kariba REDD project according to Verra
6 Oct 2025
Almost two years after suspending the project, Verra has completed its carbon accounting review. The quality control review is still ongoing.
South African environmental groups push to block Shell’s new wells – how world court opinion might help
17 Sep 2025
The International Court of Justice’s landmark advisory opinion on climate change has come in handy for South African communities that are trying to stop global oil company Shell from drilling for oil and gas off the coast.
Second Africa Climate Summit seeks to jump hurdles to green industrialisation
10 Sep 2025
A report on progress since the first summit in 2023 says financial, infrastructure and trade obstacles are hampering “climate-positive growth” on the continent.
Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?
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.
Is Africa about to see the solar energy boom it needs?
28 Aug 2025
African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent.
Africa’s top climate change challenges: a fairer deal on phasing out fossil fuels and mobilising funds
22 Aug 2025
African countries have made binding commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, they will need to shift to renewable energy and stop mining and using fossil fuels like oil and coal.
African $60 billion high-speed rail project takes shape
15 Aug 2025
One of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa has received a new update that could see construction begin soon.
Africa needs $3 trillion to meet climate goal
8 Aug 2025
The continent needed over $3 trillion to meet its climate goals, as climate finance is a matter of survival for Africa, according to the African Union.
Fines and jail time coming for big polluters in South Africa
7 Aug 2025
South Africa will seek jail time, fines and higher taxes for breaches of proposed rules to govern carbon emissions that will apply to almost all sectors of the economy.
How oil push in Democratic Republic of Congo could affect climate change
4 Aug 2025
Home to the world's second largest tropical rainforest, Democratic Republic of Congo plans to expose half its land to oil and gas drilling in what conservationists call a major threat to endangered apes, local jobs and global climate goals.
Dire warning aid cuts are stopping vulnerable nations from preparing for climate disaster
29 Jul 2025
Funding cuts plus the failure to agree a financial target to help poorer countries adapt to climate change is already having a stark impact.
Africa wants climate compensation, not loans
23 Jul 2025
The $1.3 trillion pledged by rich nations to the developing world to combat climate change should be in the form of compensation rather than loans, an African ministerial conference argued.
Kenyan start-up aiming to generate carbon credits from thin air
21 Jul 2025
In the scrublands of central Kenya, technicians monitor four large metallic tanks where steam heated by the Earth's crust is used to pull carbon dioxide from the air in an effort to limit global warming.
How Ireland’s ‘mediocre’ milk powder made it big in West Africa
16 Jul 2025
Polluting dairy industry accused of using “highly unethical” marketing to pass off ultra-processed “poor quality by-products” as milk.
Africa is not a solar geoengineering test site
8 Jul 2025
This potentially dangerous course of action would divert financing and support from real solutions, while putting the continent’s ecosystems and communities at risk.
Congo death toll hits 77 after extreme weather brings floods and sinks boats, 107 remain missing
18 Jun 2025
Authorities in Congo said the death toll following devastating floods and separate boat accidents has reached 77, with more than 100 people missing.
Death toll from Nigeria flash floods rises to 151
3 Jun 2025
At least 151 people in central Nigeria are now known to have died following flash floods that destroyed homes and displaced thousands of residents earlier this week.
TotalEnergies abandons its carbon plantations in the Republic of Congo
29 May 2025
TotalEnergies has quietly abandoned the Batéké Carbon Sink project in the Republic of Congo, with only 12.5% of the proposed trees planted.
Nigeria's Trans Niger oil pipeline bursts, spills crude, rights group says
22 May 2025
Nigeria's Trans Niger Pipeline, a major oil artery transporting crude from onshore oilfields to the Bonny export terminal, burst and spilled oil into the local B-Dere community in Ogoniland.
Indigenous land disputes cloud Kenya’s carbon market ambitions
20 May 2025
Two of Kenya’s biggest carbon credit projects are mired in controversy, clouding the country’s hopes of raising climate finance from the offset market.
More than 100 dead after flooding in eastern DR Congo, officials say
15 May 2025
Heavy overnight floods have washed away several villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing more than 100 people, according to local officials, in a nation suffering war and mass displacement.
Heat extremes in southern Africa might continue even if net-zero emissions are achieved
13 May 2025
Will reaching net zero have any effect on heat extremes, particularly in Africa?
Large fires are burning on the slopes of South Africa's famous Table Mountain
1 May 2025
Helicopters dropped water on large fires burning on the slopes of South Africa's Table Mountain on Tuesday as police investigated whether arson was the cause.
Ethiopia’s bold EV ambitions hit bumps in rural areas
17 Apr 2025
After becoming the world’s first country to ban imports of fossil fuel vehicles last year, a patchy power grid and high EV purchase costs are slowing Ethiopia’s green transport revolution in the countryside
Africa is proof that investing in climate resilience works – and that it makes good business sense
15 Apr 2025
Climate denialism should not blind investors and governments to the very real opportunities to be found in financing solutions.
Teens’ mental health suffers on Africa’s climate frontlines
14 Apr 2025
As climate change impacts take a heavy toll on young people’s wellbeing in poor rural areas, how can policymakers help them cope?
Africa must shun Trump’s push to resurrect coal
9 Apr 2025
Clean energy can be Africa’s greatest success story, which is why its leaders must not fall for the pro-coal lobbying of the Trump administration.
Study finds deforestation is a leading indicator of Ebola outbreaks
2 Apr 2025
A new CDC-led study identifies deforestation as a leading indicator of Ebola virus spillover. Using machine learning and two decades of satellite data, researchers found that forest loss and fragmentation were among the strongest predictors of where the virus might jump from animals to humans. The model doesn’t prove causation—but it does help identify environmental patterns that could guide preparedness in regions facing rising ecological pressure.
The case against a carbon credit farm in Madagascar
1 Apr 2025
The Italian multinational Tozzi Green has begun planting trees on land that local residents claim was stolen from them.
How much do rich nations owe Africa for climate damage?
27 Feb 2025
Wealthy nations owe African countries some 50 times more for climate damage than the debt Africa owes them, ActionAid report says.
Oil clean-up 'scam' warnings ignored by Shell, whistleblower tells BBC
17 Feb 2025
A BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that energy giant Shell has ignored repeated warnings that a controversial clean-up operation of oil-polluted areas of southern Nigeria has been beset by problems and corruption.
Sustainable economic growth in South Africa will come from renewables, not coal: modelling
17 Feb 2025
To move away from coal and meet its commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, South Africa needs to dramatically increase production of renewable energy.
Who can share seeds? As climate change and counterfeits hurt Kenyan farmers, it's a growing question
10 Feb 2025
Tucked away in a lush, forested area of central Kenya's Kikuyu town, the National Seed Bank stands as a crucial safeguard for the future of the country's agriculture. Inside two chilly rooms of a government building, more than 50,000 seed varieties are cataloged and stored.
African nations want to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030
3 Feb 2025
Several African nations committed on Monday to open up their electricity sectors to attract investors and light up homes of 300 million people currently lacking power in the next six years.
Think your efforts to help the climate don't matter? African philosophers disagree
31 Jan 2025
If a single pro-environment lifestyle change - like one person giving up their SUV or cutting out meat in favour of plant-based foods - will not turn the tide of global climate change on its own, it's reasonable to feel there is little that 'doing your bit' can achieve. This mindset is disempowering.
Kenya’s devastating drought is the worst in 40 years
18 Dec 2024
The extreme conditions are leaving millions without food or clean water.
Nimble electric trucks are supercharging African trade
12 Dec 2024
In Rwanda, farmers often watch their harvest spoil before it can reach the market. A fleet of simple, efficient trucks is changing that.
Thirty-five million Africans driven from homes by war and climate disasters – report
29 Nov 2024
Data shows a threefold increase in internal displacement across the African continent since 2009, with flooding and drought posing a growing threat.
The huge, high-tech, low-carbon kitchens feeding young Kenyans
27 Nov 2024
The Giga Kitchen is the jewel in the crown of Food4Education, a Kenyan nonprofit using high-tech, low-carbon and centralized kitchens to feed students en masse in what is Africa’s largest locally led and independently run school feeding program.
Big Oil’s dirty legacy in Nigeria
8 Nov 2024
Who will clean up the environmental mess when Shell and others pull out of the Niger Delta?
COP29 must kickstart stalled progress on the lifeline that is adaptation
1 Nov 2024
Targets for adapting to climate change are meaningless without the means to act. It’s time for a clear adaptation finance goal.
Worst drought in century devastates Southern Africa, millions at risk
17 Oct 2024
More than 27 million lives affected by worst drought in a century, with 21 million children malnourished, says WFP.
South Sudan floods: the first example of a mass population permanently displaced by climate change?
16 Sep 2024
Enormous floods have once again engulfed much of South Sudan, as record water-levels in Lake Victoria flow downstream through the Nile.
Floods decimate Nigerian zoo, wash crocodiles into community
13 Sep 2024
Floods in north Nigeria have killed more than 80% of animals in a large zoo with an array of wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffaloes and ostriches.
'People have never seen anything like it': Morocco hit by extraordinary torrential rains
13 Sep 2024
A rare and deadly phenomenon: According to the latest count, published by the Moroccan interior ministry, 18 people have died as a result of the torrential rains that fell.
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP per year with climate change
4 Sep 2024
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP every year as they bear a heavier burden than the rest of the world from climate change, a new report said Monday after one of the continent’s hottest years on record.
Nearly 68 million people reeling from drought in Southern Africa
19 Aug 2024
Seventeen percent of people across the region need aid amid the climate change-fuelled drought.
Niger floods toll increases - 53 dead, 18,000 affected
23 Jul 2024
Flooding caused by heavy rains lashing Niger since June has killed 53 people and impacted 18,000, as the west African country grapples with the effects of climate change.
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.
States sue to stop Trump cancellation of $7 billion solar grant program
Today 11:00am
Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its cancellation of a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities, according to court papers.
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.
How one country’s Russian gas crisis became a green energy boom
Today 11:00am
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Moldova quickly empowered its small towns to produce their own renewable energy so no one could push it around.
UK Prime Minister will attend Brazil climate summit
Today 11:00am
Keir Starmer will travel to the Amazon rainforest for the COP30 United Nations climate summit next month, Downing Street has confirmed, after weeks of speculation that he would not.
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.
Mystery heatwave warms Pacific Ocean to new record
Today 11:00am
The waters of the north Pacific have had their warmest summer on record, according to BBC analysis of a mysterious marine heatwave that has confounded climate scientists.
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".
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.
New UN carbon market rules could reshape how investors value nature
Mon 20 Oct 2025
A debate over carbon permanence – how long CO2 must stay stored to count towards offsetting emissions – is reshaping global carbon markets and could determine whether nature remains investable.
