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November 11, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

A pyrocumulus cloud forms as smoke rises from a wildfire as seen from a cemetery in the village of Vilarmel, Lugo area, Galicia region, Spain, on Saturday.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2025
Spain and Portugal continue to battle deadly wildfires
Two firefighters were killed on Sunday — one in each country, both in road accidents — taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain.
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (right) and the country’s reserve bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, attend the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Cape Town on Feb. 27. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025
A new trade agenda for climate-resilient development
Policymakers must be prepared to introduce new trade rules that support low-carbon transitions in Africa and across the Global South.
A BNP Paribas branch in Paris. The EU’s biggest bank by assets was questioning the value of continued Net-Zero Banking Alliance membership as recently as June.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2025
Banking’s ailing climate coalition loses ground in Europe
Inside the world’s largest climate coalition for banks, there’s speculation that an exodus led by Wall Street could be about to spread to the European Union.
The Parque da Cidade, the main venue for the COP30 summit, under construction in Belem, Brazil, on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025
Lula’s plan for COP30 in Amazon risks becoming a logistical mess
With fewer than 100 days to go, Brazil is under fire from countries concerned about a shortage of hotel rooms and soaring accommodation costs.
The government is considering requiring handheld fans to be recycled, in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2025
Japan may make recycling handheld fans mandatory
The consideration comes in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
Four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France were shut down on Monday due to the "massive and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish" in the pumping stations for the water used to cool the reactors.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 12, 2025
Jellyfish shut down French nuclear reactors as heat wave builds
A marine heat wave, like the one intensifying off the west coast of France, can help jellyfish populations "bloom," and several beaches have been closed due to their invasion.
Haji Karam Jat (right), a fisherman, and his family members walk along an embankment in Keti Bandar town of Thatta district near the Indus delta, in the south of Pakistan on June 25.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 7, 2025
Death of a delta: Pakistan's Indus sinks and shrinks
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced from the region in the last two decades as the downstream flow of water into the delta has fallen 80% since the 1950s.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Italy's competition watchdog said on Monday that it has fined Chinese fast fashion brand Shein €1 million ($1.15 million) for false and confusing claims about the e-commerce giant's efforts to be environmentally friendly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 5, 2025
Italian regulator hits Shein with €1 million greenwashing fine
The watchdog took issue with the environmental sustainability and social responsibility messages on Shein's website, which it described as "vague" and "misleading."
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
Peruvian police seized four tons of illegal mercury from Mexico bound for Bolivia, dealing a severe blow to criminal organizations linked to illegal gold mining, customs authorities reported on Thursday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2025
Smuggled mercury shows extent of illegal Amazon gold mining
Record gold prices have encouraged a flourishing illegal mining trade that damages local nature and biodiversity and is raising significant health concerns.
Sheep on the eastern shores of Lake Hawea, near the town of Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand sheep farmers are fighting to stop the loss of pasture to fast-spreading pine plantations, which earn government subsidies to soak up carbon emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 28, 2025
New Zealand farmers battle pine forests to 'save our sheep'
New Zealand is one of the rare countries to allow 100% of carbon emissions to be offset by forestry.
Climate action is uneven worldwide, with capacity gaps and rising challenges in climate-risk disclosure underscoring the need for inclusive minimum standards that all companies and countries — especially smaller firms and developing nations — can realistically meet to ensure an effective global response.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2025
Climate disclosure is advancing — but who’s being left behind?
Global momentum for standardized climate-related disclosure remains strong, reflecting a desire to balance regulatory ambition with economic competitiveness.
Children play on the splash pad in Miami Beach, Florida, on Friday as the region came under an extreme heat warning.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / FOCUS
Jul 26, 2025
World court climate ruling: nonbinding but game changing
By saying that all countries were firmly bound to a swathe of legal obligations, experts say the ruling will influence climate decisions globally.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri (right) and Lando Norris drive during the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone, England, on July 6.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jul 25, 2025
Formula 1's renewable energy shift drives 26% drop in carbon footprint
F1 said in a statement on Wednesday that it’s halfway toward achieving its minimum 50% reduction target, as set out in its "net zero by 2030” commitment. 
Marine biologist Teina Rongo on his boat passing the research vessel MV Anuanua Moana in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, on June 12. Mining exploration has left many Cook Islanders such as Rongo fearing deep-sea mining could taint their precious ocean forever.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 23, 2025
The Pacific island nation that wants to mine the ocean floor
Research vessels roam the seas around the Cook Islands in search of deposits of battery metals, rare earths and critical minerals.
Polymetallic nodules — bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in battery metals such as cobalt and nickel which carpet huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed — in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on June 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2025
Trump’s critical minerals obsession reignites deep-sea mining
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order expediting U.S. licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law.
A demonstrator holds the Mohawk Warrior Flag during a protest in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario against the federal government’s Bill C-5, as members of the Canadian Armed Forces fire cannons in the background during a celebration marking Canada Day in Toronto on July 1.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025
Indigenous people in Canada challenge fast-track mine and energy projects
The tensions between the government and Indigenous communities reflect longstanding concerns over consultation and the environmental impact of mining projects in Canada.
A man sits in a boat on the waters of the Brahmaputra river near the international border between India and Bangladesh in the northeastern state of Assam, India, in 2018.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2025
China starts construction on world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet
The project is part of China's push to expand renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions.
Yukihiro Kaneko, a Panasonic research officer, shows a perovskite panel, through which the background can been seen, during an interview in Tokyo.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2025
Japan sees bright future for ultrathin and flexible solar panels
The government is offering generous incentives in order to reach Japan's target of having renewable energy cover up to 50% of electricity demand by 2040.
Tsunami threat passes following magnitude 6.9 quake off Iwate
A tsunami advisory was issued for Iwate Prefecture on Sunday evening following a strong earthquake. The advisory was later called off, after waves measuring 20 centimeters were recorded in some areas.
Japan to subsidize demolition of abandoned inns
Abandoned Japanese-style inns in the Kinugawa hot springs resort in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, in March 2023
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Mother of Thai girl forced into sex work in Tokyo detained in Taiwan
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
Jenson Button brings end to an illustrious racing career intertwined with Japan
Jenson Button races for Honda during the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2008.
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo’s Spogomi world cup
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 qualifying countries scoured the streets of Shibuya for all manners of trash as part of the Spogomi litter-picking competition.
Jon Homewood: ‘There’s beauty in what we throw away’
After a peripatetic childhood around the world, teacher and artist Jon Homewood ended up coming to Japan in 2012 for a professional opportunity.
Yokozuna duo Onosato and Hoshoryu poised for another clash of titans
Yokozuna duo Onosato (right) and Hoshoryu clash for the title on the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Sept. 28 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.

Podcast

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

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
By Yukana Inoue

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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