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October 04, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

An aerial view shows the contrast between the green zone and the desert landscape of the Kubuqi Desert, in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025
China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship
While the project has been credited with "greening" over 90 million hectares, it risks erasing the traditional nomadic practices of ethnic Mongolians.
An aerial view of Tuvalu in 2024. Rising sea levels caused by climate change have prompted the Tuvalu government to strike a climate migration pact with Australia.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2025
Developing countries accuse rich of broken climate promises at U.N.
Leaders of developing countries say rich nations must provide resources to cope with climate change, a crisis they created, but such nations have not met their commitments.
China is reshaping the global energy landscape by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy investments across the Global South, creating jobs and long-term influence on a scale comparable to the Marshall Plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
China is winning its power play for the Global South
Beijing’s green energy projects are bringing jobs, growth and cheap electricity to the developing world.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses members of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. At a climate summit hosted by Guterres on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7%-10% from its peak by 2035.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 25, 2025
Beijing takes the lead with new climate plans amid Washington’s denial
China's reduction target marked the first time the world's biggest emitter pledged a cut in emissions, rather than just limiting their growth.
A flowering canola crop grows in the Canadian prairies, with smoky air from forest fires to the north obscuring the morning sun, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / FOCUS
Sep 23, 2025
The unexpected upside of Canada's wildfires 
Canada is the world's largest producer of canola, growing 21 million acres in a band along the country's vast northern forests.
Smoke billows from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl, which had been burning for eleven consecutive days, while vessels try to extinguish the fire in the sea off Sri Lanka's Colombo Harbor on May 30, 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 23, 2025
Singapore shipper rejects $1B damages over Sri Lanka's worst pollution incident
The company operated the MV X-Press Pearl that sank off Colombo Port in 2021 while carrying 81 containers of hazardous goods and hundreds of metric tons of plastic pellets.
An offshore wind turbine off the coast of Goto in Nagasaki Prefecture
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2025
Floating wind power sets sail in Japan's energy shift
Still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels, Japan has declared offshore wind energy a "trump card" in its drive to make renewables.
One of Singapore Design’s Week’s lighter exhibitions is the “Unnatural History Museum of Singapore,” where levity and engineering combat anxieties over ecological crises.
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 20, 2025
‘Pluriversal’ Singapore Design Week brings solution-oriented works
Running through Sept. 21, the design fair in the island city-state grapples with issues especially common in Japan.
The coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah in 2024. A former U.S. climate envoy says President Donald Trump is leading the world "in the wrong direction" on climate and weaponizing clean energy as a culture war issue.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 18, 2025
Ex-U.S. climate envoy: Trump threatening 'consensus science' worldwide
John Podesta, former U.S. President Joe Biden's senior point person on international climate policy, testified in a case challenging the administration's fossil fuel agenda.
Abandoning quarterly reporting would see the U.S. market join a global shift away from the practice and could help investors pushing boards to do more on issues such as climate change that are set to increasingly impact corporate value.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 17, 2025
Climate-conscious investors back Trump's call to end quarterly reports
Trump's call to end quarterly reporting has received support from an unlikely source: international investors pushing business to do more on longer-term sustainability issues.
The "Playground of Life: Jellyfish Pavilion" at the Osaka Expo on Thursday. Fukuyama in Hiroshima Prefecture aims to relocate the pavilion to a site in the city after the event ends on Oct. 13.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Reuse pavilions and equipment, Osaka Expo organizer urges
The organizer is encouraging local governments and companies to reuse buildings and equipment including air conditioners and lighting.
Industry minister Yoji Muto speaks during a news conference on Monday in Osaka.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Countries vow to quadruple the use of sustainable fuels by 2035
Biofuels are expected to contribute to carbon reductions as plants used as their raw materials absorb carbon dioxide while growing.
Despite centuries of overfishing and ecological collapse, the recovery of tuna stocks shows that strong regulation and economic self-interest can make once-endangered species sustainably abundant again.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025
Tuna sushi is safe from extinction, for now
With the exception of Mediterranean albacore (a favorite of Spanish canneries) and bigeye in the Indian Ocean, every population is now being fished within sustainable levels.
Artificial intelligence avatar Una will appear at the U.N. pavilion at Osaka Expo later this month as part of initiatives to combat climate change.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Japan-backed AI avatar to promote climate action at expo
The anime-inspired female character, Una, was developed as part of climate initiatives supported by the Japanese government.
A huge piece of plastic waste is pulled up from the waters near Tatara Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, on July 10.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2025
Japan backs development of new materials to cut marine plastic waste
A five-year plan starting this fiscal year calls for the development of a new material that can be used for several years in water before it slowly decomposes over time.
The Environment Ministry and other government agencies decided to strengthen calls for caution, as bear sightings are feared to increase this autumn.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2025
Asian black bear sightings hit record high in Japan
Bear sightings are feared to increase this autumn due to an expected poor harvest of beech nuts, a key food source.
Heliostat mirrors at the site of Dunhuang Shouhang 100MW Tower Solar Thermal Power Generation Project in Gansu province, China, on Oct. 16, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 10, 2025
China’s green tech firms pour billions into overseas factories
Chinese companies are expanding their supply chains abroad to capture new markets, avoid tariffs and get closer to sources of raw materials, according to new research.
China, led by firms like BYD and CATL, dominates green tech, which is forcing the EU to choose between defensive policies or collaboration on clean trade and investment to advance climate goals.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
Can Europe and China forge a climate connection?
Europe should forge a shared competitiveness agenda with China, which would allow it to use its strengths.
NASA says its satellite imagery shows the Earth is becoming drier — at least the parts where most people live.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
The Earth is drying out and we need to act urgently
Measurements from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites suggest the continents have been losing fresh water at an alarming rate since 2002.
Pakistani soldiers ferry flood-affected villagers evacuated by boat from the Muzaffargarh district in the country's Punjab province on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2025
Pakistan's latest floods compound grim reality of climate finance shortfall
Less-developed countries that contribute minimally to climate change bear the brunt of its impacts as funding pledges by advanced, higher-emitting countries fail to be fulfilled.
Takaichi poised to become Japan's first female PM after winning LDP poll
Newly elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi celebrates after winning the leadership race in Tokyo on Saturday.
Tokyo's newest stationery store sells 'a slower, more human rhythm'
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
The party that ruled Japan for decades is in danger of crumbling
Haruo Tsukamoto, a rank-and-file member of the Liberal Democratic Party and a rice farmer in Ibaraki Prefecture, questions if the party still stands for people like him.
8,432 foreign children in Japan seen not attending school
The total number of foreign children registered in Japan as residents eligible for education at elementary or junior high schools stood at 163,358, up by 12,663.
U.S. federal shutdown affects Americans in Japan and diplomatic talks
The U.S. government shut down on Wednesday, though essential services are still being offered.
The summer kabuki came roaring back
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.
Japan's far-right party courts Trump allies and vows not to get 'wacky'
Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Sept. 25.
How Ohtani has boosted Japan's soft power and made LA even more baseball-obsessed
Fans at Dodger Stadium pose in front of a mural highlighting the Dodgers' Japanese stars from past and present during a game earlier this year.
Japan faces fresh energy challenge as it seeks to expand power-hungry data centers
Data storage tapes at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center facility in Berkeley, California. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and that will only rise as generative artificial intelligence takes off in earnest.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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