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Climate change diplomacy

Climate change diplomacy
Latest news and analysis about how different governments engage with each other over environmental policies, including competition, collaboration and negotiations.
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Climate change

Opinion | Asia is ground zero for the impact of global glacier loss

Other mountain ranges are losing their glaciers faster but Asia’s critically dependent economy and people put it on the front line.

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Climate change

How rapid climate change in Greenland is transforming lives and livelihoods

Americas and the Caribbean

Peruvian farmer’s climate fight reaches German court

Indonesia

Indonesia’s clean energy transition in doubt after US withdrawal from JETP

Despite Jakarta’s ambitious net-zero goals, analysts say the country has limited political will to fulfil its climate commitments on its own.

A fisherman looking at the Suralaya coal-fired power plant in Cilegon in Indonesia’s Banten province. Photo: AFP
Science

Why is China quietly helping Africa build a Great Green Wall across the Sahara?

‘This battle can be won’: desert expert reveals how China’s technology, funding and strategies aid ambitious environmental project.

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Electric & new energy vehicles

Exclusive | Why does a Kazakh tycoon want to ride China’s electric vehicle wave?

‘We are a natural partner for China, especially in the growing EV sector,’ says Kenges Rakishev, chairman of the Fincraft Group.

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Climate change

Opinion | Can China, India step in to fill climate void left by Trump’s America?

The US’ absence from international deliberations on climate change must not be allowed to derail efforts to solve the crisis.

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A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire near a burned structure in Los Angeles, on January 8. Photo: AP
United Nations

Nations agree to hard-fought nature funding plan at UN talks in Rome

More than 140 countries at the Cop16 agree on a financing plan to help reverse dramatic losses in biodiversity.

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US-China relations

Opinion | China must assess risks and rewards as Trump reverses US climate policy

Beijing can no longer expect to use climate cooperation as a bargaining chip with Washington. But a chance arises to seize global climate leadership.

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Pacific nations

China, the Cook Islands – and New Zealand’s struggle for Pacific influence

By signing a deal with Beijing, the Cook Islands is asserting its independence – in a stark challenge to New Zealand’s Pacific strategy.

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The Cook Islands, with its population of around 15,000, is a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand. Photo: Shutterstock
Climate change

‘Virtually certain’ Earth has already breached 1.5-degree warming threshold

Last year’s record-breaking temperatures could be a sign that the world was entering a new era of global warming.

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The Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is a small-sounding number with big implications for life on Earth. File photo: Nasa via AP
Australia

Australia plans ‘long-term managed retreat’ from Cocos Islands

Many of the islands’ residents are descendants of Malay workers brought there to work in coconut plantations in the 1830s.

Electric & new energy vehicles

Opinion | Why China’s best bet is growing and sharing the green tech pie

Countries don’t want to be relegated to the least profitable roles in the green transition. China must share the pie for long-term stability.

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Climate change

Outside In | Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ vision adds to the global climate nightmare

Greatest harm is in the emboldening of the US fossil fuel industry and pressure on US finance giants to turn away from funding climate goals.

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The CHS oil refinery silhouetted against the setting sun on September 28 in McPherson, Kansas. Photo: AP
Climate change

Opinion | How battery storage development can wean China off fossil fuels

As China’s green transition faces external and domestic hurdles, a focus on energy storage capacity will help Beijing meet climate targets.

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A staff member from the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences patrols the 300MW compressed air energy storage station in Yingcheng city, central China’s Hubei province, on December 24, 2024. Photo: Xinhua
Climate change

Opinion | We wouldn’t slap tariffs on vaccines. Why would we on solar panels?

Despite apprehension from some governments, the benefits of China’s green technology oversupply can be deployed for the greater good.

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War and conflict

Opinion | Crisis-hit supply chains must become stronger, greener and fairer

A fundamental rethink is needed as global supply chains flounder amid war and attacks, geopolitical tensions and climate shocks.

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US-China relations

Has Trump created an opening for China by quitting WHO and Paris Agreement?

China appears poised to lead climate initiatives but will struggle to fill vacuum in public health as US leaves frameworks, analysts say.

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US President Donald Trump holds up a letter to the UN stating that the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement during his inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington on Monday. Photo: AFP
Climate change

Davos climate activists paint Amazon base green, disrupt helicopters

Greenpeace, which briefly blocked heliport in the Swiss town, said it was calling for ‘a fair tax on the richest people’.

Global South

Opinion | As West cuts global aid, emerging powers must step up and contribute

Emerging donors from developing nations with significant economic growth should play a bigger role. Kazakhstan is doing so in Central Asia.

Electric & new energy vehicles

From oversupply to Trump 2.0: the outlook for EV batteries in 2025

Here are a few things you need to know about the EV battery market in 2025.

A worker at a car battery plant in Nanjing, China. Photo: AFP
Climate change

Opinion | After a mixed bag for climate action in 2024, businesses must take the lead

As more governments lurch to the right, firms are feeling a backlash against social and climate action. But the stakes are too high for inaction.

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A session to discuss sustainable development and energy transition on the sidelines of the G20 summit on November 19 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: G20/dpa
US-China relations

Sino-Russian Arctic cooperation need not trouble US yet, Pentagon official says

Even so, US Defence Department expert on the Arctic adds, ‘it’s important for us to be consistently monitoring how their intentions progress’.

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Climate change

Opinion | Southeast Asia’s energy transition is lacking both finance and policy

The bulk of funds needed will have to come from private finance, which requires a conducive environment that regulatory policy can create.

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Climate change

Opinion | Did Cop29 make any meaningful progress on climate change?

Market reforms are needed to motivate investors to deliver more affordable capital and to level the playing field between fossil fuels and renewables.

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An attendee reacts during a closing plenary session at the COP29 UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 24. Photo: AP
Climate change

Is Asia’s climate funding hope fading over ‘unclear’ Cop29 pledges?

Experts say the summit outcome lacks details, making it challenging to secure financing for Southeast Asia and South Asia.

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Damaged buildings and debris on a street after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Ha Long, in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province, on September 8. Photo: AFP
Climate change

Opinion | Will China seize the chance to become a world leader on climate?

Despite growing scrutiny of its international climate finance contributions, Beijing’s domestic policies could help set standards in the Global South.

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ESG investing

Jane Goodall: all Hongkongers need to work together to promote biodiversity

‘We have five years to get together and try and slow down these horrific harms that we’ve done to the planet,’ primatologist says.

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