TOPIC

Environment

Related Topics:

Environment

Latest news and updates about issues impacting the global environment, including climate change, recycling, pollution and sustainable living.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has come under increasing pressure to fill the State Department’s vacant post for Arctic affairs to help curb China and Russia’s influence in the region. Photo: Xinhua

US-China relations

Senior Democrat urges Rubio to fill Arctic post and halt rise of China, Russia

In a letter, Raja Krishnamoorthi asks US Secretary of State to restore key US role in ‘one of the world’s most strategically vital regions’.

4 hours agovideocam

Airbnb ban in Bali? Indonesia says no, but crackdown on illegal stays looms

11 Dec 2025 - 10:51PMvideocam

‘I have to wear a mask all the time’: Hanoi’s smog hits crisis levels

11 Dec 2025 - 4:44PM

Opinion | How China is cementing its central role as the architect of green tech

Beyond climate leadership and capacity building, China is rewriting its own energy system – and the global energy order.

11 Dec 2025 - 4:30PMvideocam

An aerial view of the No 1 booster station of the Ningxia Power Investment Yongli (Zhongwei) 3-megawatt photovoltaic green power project, in Shapotou district, Zhongwei city, Ningxia. It was officially connected to the grid and began power generation on October 25. Photo : Xinhua

‘Could go extinct here’: orangutans at risk as Indonesia floods devastate habitat

Orangutans have disappeared since landslides struck Sipirok in North Sumatra province.

9 Dec 2025 - 10:00PMvideocam

Is Indonesian disaster response failing Sumatra’s flood victims?

Prabowo’s government is ‘busy bragging about its quick reaction’ while deaths mount and people suffer from lack of aid, critics say.

9 Dec 2025 - 6:31PMvideocam

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Jakarta office building fire kills 22, including pregnant woman

The cause is under investigation, but witnesses reported seeing a battery spark in the testing area of the building belonging to a drone company.

10 Dec 2025 - 5:49PMvideocam

Rescuers work around an office building that caught fire in Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

‘We have this gift’: Hong Kong film shows healing power of city’s nature

Never Too Late shows how four Hongkongers found balance and freedom in the city’s natural spaces and why people should cherish its beauty.

8 Dec 2025 - 6:15PMvideocam

Video | Force of Kilauea eruption knocks out remote camera

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been erupting intermittently since December 2024.

9 Dec 2025 - 6:27PM

China desalination tech makes fresh water cheaper than tap water – plus hydrogen

Facility in Shandong province also produces mineral-rich brine for industrial use, achieving ‘one-in, three-out’ circular economy.

8 Dec 2025 - 1:22AMvideocam

China has figured out a way to produce fresh water from seawater for just two yuan (US$0.28) per cubic metre. Photo: AFP

India to pause coal power expansion beyond 2035 amid grid stress

Several Indian utilities are signing contracts with coal-fired power generators to meet a projected surge in demand for cooling.

8 Dec 2025 - 2:50AM

An Indian farmer sprinkles pesticide on a field as smoke rises from the chimneys of a coal power plant. The demand for coal-based power plants has risen due to prolonged heatwaves. File photo: Reuters

627 dead in Sri Lanka landslides as rains batter South, Southeast Asia

At least 1,812 people have been killed in the natural disasters rolling across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

7 Dec 2025 - 7:45PM

Opinion | Fashion industry must tailor climate plans to Asian suppliers’ reality

Efforts to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions in the fashion industry will not work if they rest on a Western design paired with Eastern sacrifice.

7 Dec 2025 - 5:30AM

Extreme weather

Letters | Asia is waking up to storms that are stronger – and more polluted

Readers discuss new research that shows how typhoons spread microplastic pollution, encouraging the use of an anti-scam app, and the migrant domestic workers who fell victim to the Tai Po fire.

6 Dec 2025 - 11:30AM

A man crosses a muddy street where cars piled up after being swept away in floods brought on by Typhoon Kalmaegi, in Bacayan, Cebu City, the Philippines, on November 5. Photo: Reuters

The Philippines

6 cyclones, 5 weeks: Philippines can’t escape its endless cycle of disaster

Corruption, complacency and climate chaos conspire to turn the Philippines’ natural hazards into man-made tragedies.

6 Dec 2025 - 8:17AMvideocam

Satellite imagery shows Super Typhoon Fung-wong as it approaches the Philippines on November 9. Photo: NOAA/EPA

Waste to wealth: why China is building incinerators around the world

China’s economic slowdown has left its waste-to-energy sector without enough trash to burn. So, companies are heading overseas.

11 Dec 2025 - 11:21AM

New Delhi’s smog surge linked to 200,000 respiratory cases

Acrid smog chokes Delhi’s skyline each winter, when cool air traps a deadly mix of pollutants from crop burning, factories, and traffic.

5 Dec 2025 - 4:55AMvideocam

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Editorial | Asia’s floods a deadly reminder of need to combat growing climate threat

Devastating flooding and landslides have focused attention on disaster preparedness efforts as rising temperatures threaten the region.

4 Dec 2025 - 7:15AM

A woman carries a child as she wades through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Wellampitiya, Sri Lanka, on November 30. Photo: AFP

Extreme weather

Asia’s floods kill over 1,000, lay bare human cost of climate inaction

From Indonesia’s deadliest disaster since 2018 to a state of emergency in Sri Lanka, Asia reels from a week of climate-fuelled destruction.

3 Dec 2025 - 5:45PMvideocam

Indonesia’s cyclone tragedy exposes lethal cost of forest destruction

Green groups say plantations and mines have degraded Sumatra’s land, amplifying a disaster that killed more than 700 and displaced thousands.

4 Dec 2025 - 3:26PMvideocam

One man kept his home dry amid Thailand’s floods. Here’s how he did it

Wicharit Leelakorn fortified his house with a makeshift flood-protection system after the first heavy rain fell on November 21.

2 Dec 2025 - 6:05PM

Wicharit Leelakorn keeps his house dry with a makeshift flood-protection system during November’s floods in Hat Yai, Songkhla province, Thailand. Photo: Facebook/wicharit.leelakorn

Extreme weather

Video | Indonesian flood survivor returns to ruined home

Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia in late November 2025.

2 Dec 2025 - 4:19PM

eqwfq

South China Sea

Senior Chinese diplomat takes swipe at US over deep-sea mining strategy

‘The oceans are not calm,’ vice-minister warns in comments aimed at Trump executive order pushing American exploitation of seabed minerals.

2 Dec 2025 - 2:20AMvideocam

‘Dying en masse’: Japan’s oyster farmers face ruin as waters heat up

Japan’s oyster farms hit by 90% deaths due to rising sea temperatures and high salinity, threatening the country’s top production area.

1 Dec 2025 - 4:48PM

Extreme weather

Video | Nearly 1,000 killed in flooding across Asia

Torrential storms have unleashed devastating floods across Asia.

1 Dec 2025 - 4:44PM

rger

Soldiers deployed in Sri Lanka, Indonesia as Asian flood toll tops 1,000

Indonesia sent three warships carrying aid while Sri Lanka used military helicopters to reach people stranded by flooding.

2 Dec 2025 - 4:21PMvideocam

Army personnel ride a truck carrying boats to rescue stranded people in Wellampitiya, on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Flood death tolls rise in Indonesia, Sri Lanka as aid trickles in

Flooding has killed hundreds in both countries and displaced thousands, as damaged roads and downed power lines hamper rescue efforts.

1 Dec 2025 - 4:40PMvideocam

Opinion | If China can cut its pollution, why can’t India?

India’s pollution crisis demands sustained, year-round action, not just emergency steps that kick in when the air turns toxic.

30 Nov 2025 - 5:30AMvideocam

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement