Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's comments on targeting carbon emissions through taxation has been welcomed by the World Wildlife Fund in SA.
A new family of primitive, legless amphibians has been discovered in remote jungles of northeast India.
Melting ice moving on the Danube River have damaged hundreds of small boats and several restaurants located on rafts.
Japanese conglomerate Mitsui will pay $90m for its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst oil spill in US history, authorities say.
The raw water supply for the northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Dundee and surrounding areas has been poisoned with cyanide, says uThukela Water.
Scientists have found a way of turning plant matter into the building blocks of common plastics using nanotechnology.
A US non-governmental organisation, Water Defence, has joined forces with the Treasure Karoo Action Group against hydraulic fracturing.
India and China have joined forces in saying they firmly rejected the EU's "unilateral" decision to impose a carbon tax on air travel.
South Africa's natural environment has, over the past 20 years, deteriorated nearly the fastest of most countries in the world.
Venezuela's state oil company has said workers are containing an oil spill in a river in the eastern part of the country.
French scientists unveiling new estimates for global warming say the 2°C goal enshrined by the United Nations was "the most optimistic" scenario left for greenhouse-gas emissions.
A cloud of Saharan dust stretching thousands of kilometres dimmed the sun and grounded flights across the western edge of Africa.
Experts have raised questions over the scientific benefit and environmental impact of Russia's feat in drilling into a virgin lake under Antarctica's ice sheet.
The coal industry has to increase its investment in clean coal technologies and research programmes, Minerals and Energy Minister Susan Shabangu says.
Malaysia gave the green light for a controversial rare earths plant being built by Australian miner Lynas despite fears its could produce harmful radioactive waste.
An alliance between the native Moqoit people and scientists has thwarted plans to ship the world's second largest meteorite to Germany as a prestigious art exhibit.
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu and her Director General Thibedi Ramontja will file an answering affidavit in response to a court application to get details on a fracking report.
Clouds of smoke from the Lunar New Year fireworks celebrations sent air pollution in Beijing soaring under a new more sensitive measurement system.
A "cowboy frog" and a "crayola katydid" are among 46 new species that have been discovered in the dense forests of the tiny South American nation of Suriname.
An oily film has been spotted near the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
Energy experts believe that seaweed holds enormous potential as a biofuel alternative to coal and oil, and US-based scientists say they have unlocked the secret of turning its sugar into energy.
A new technology to extract precipitated calcium carbonate from waste water has been invented in South Africa.
New Zealand authorities have begun preparing for a fresh oil spill on the east coast as the container ship Rena began to sink.
The Obama administration has approved a 20-year ban on new mining claims near Grand Canyon tourist site.
Beijing's government has bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way air quality is measured in the Chinese capital, one of the world's most polluted cities.
Conservation body Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife says its tender to hunt a white rhino will help fund the KwaMduku community's conservation efforts.
Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
India will reject any global pact legally binding it to cut greenhouse gas emissions as such a move could stifle economic growth needed to eradicate poverty.
Brazil's environmental protection agency has slapped a new fine on US oil company Chevron for the alleged breach of its environmental license in handling an oil spill.
Ecologists warn that production of frankincense, one of the three gifts the Wise Men gave to the baby Jesus in a key part of the Nativity story celebrated at Christmas, is in dramatic decline.
Rescuers spotted a raft carrying around 15 possible survivors from Russia’s oil rig disaster off Sakhalin island, the rig’s owner says.
Roald Amundsen's feat of reaching the South Pole on skis 100 years ago is proving a tough act to follow for some polar adventurers.
Energy-starved Laos has sought the green light from Southeast Asian neighbours for a proposed hydropower dam on the Mekong River.
While there have been real improvements in the company’s practices, most official Walmart proclamations involv impressive goals rather than actual achievements, says Andreas Späth.
Millions of Chinese have gone online to vent their anger over the thick smog that has blanketed Beijing, raising health fears.
Waste pickers would make more money if the "middlemen" were cut out, a waste pickers organisation has said.
Environmentally aware farming practices could have the dual advantages of limiting climate change and feeding the world's poor, Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says.
Sasol is shelving exploration plans for shale gas in the Karoo, at least for now, the company says.
Philippine authorities have seized about 2 000 live geckos as part of a campaign to protect the lizard that is highly-valued in traditional Asian medicine.
The UN has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources, finding in a report that a quarter of all land is highly degraded.
The green movement, which advocates the protection of the environment, will soon determine how economies are run, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula says.
Nigeria, Indonesia and North Korea have the world’s highest rates of deforestation while China and the US, the top two greenhouse gas polluters, have the lowest, a global ranking reveals.
It could cost a lot of green to put South Africa's first home-grown "green" vehicle, the Joule electric car, into commercial production.
Migrating cranes, and snow geese have been left with fewer winter watering holes due to the Southwestern drought.
Around 1 000 people displaced by Sudan's vast Merowe dam have staged a sit-in protest of the government's failure to compensate them.
An architect has created what some are calling the world's first vertical forest in Milan.
The mystery of how a subglacial mountain range the size of the Alps formed up to 250 million years ago has finally been solved.
A US energy firm has estimated that a field off Cyprus may hold billions of cubic metres of natural gas.
Over half of South Africa's river and wetlands ecosystems are threatened, Deputy Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi says.
Poaching and illegal trade in sturgeon caviar persist in Romania and Bulgaria, posing a serious risk to the highly threatened species of fish, the WWF has said.
Despite Vele Colliery near Mapungubwe receiving the green light to mine, it still has a possible criminal case hanging over its head.
South Africa could gain an additional 108 000 international tourists a year due to the increased exposure of Table Mountain as a New 7 Wonder.
Fears are growing that a ship stuck on a New Zealand reef may break up and release a new tide of oil, as its captain was charged.
There has been an outcry over the true cost of the Wild Coast toll road, following reports that government has approved the controversial project.
The Democratic Alliance is urging broader representation in the task team set up by government to investigate fracking in the Karoo.
An environmental consultant and his firm have been fined for falsely claiming there was no wetland on the site where the Pan-African Parliament was to be built.
SA is "well-equipped" to have nuclear power stations and has a "nuclear safety culture", Eskom says.
Toxic gases emitted by Mozal have raised the ire of local communities and has had inspection visits by three international complaints directorates.
Japan says it will halt its Antarctic whaling mission for the rest of the season because of harassment by environmentalists on the high seas.
U2 guitarist The Edge is locked in a dispute with Californian authorities over plans to build five new luxury homes near Malibu.
A new hotel has opened in the heart of Madrid proudly declaring that it's complete rubbish.
Actor and environmentalist Harrison Ford has urged the United States to step up its role in protecting nature.
As the fashion pack leave London for Milan, one designer and a professor of particle technology have unveiled their own unique collection made with spray-on fabric.
Cleaning up SA's 6 000 abandoned mines, which is polluting local water supplies, will take aboutd 3 000 years at the current rate of rehabilitation.
Earth Day Network is enlisting groups in 15 countries to plant 1 million trees this year with Avatar movie director James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox.
The Karoo provides the ideal opportunity to observe the night sky for both professionals and amateurs, an astronomer has said.
The clean-up of a northern KwaZulu-Natal river has been completed after a cyanide spill, and pollution levels are within a safe and legal limit, officials say.
New research into the makeup of the earth's rainforests has posed a challenge to a currently popular ecological theory.
Environmental contamination from fracking operations often happens close to surface and not far below, study has found.
Construction will resume on the Chapman’s Peak Drive toll plaza site but the department of transport and public works has agreed to get a specialist to investigate alternative tolling systems.
Carolina residents in Mpumalanga who cannot afford bottled water have resorted to drinking the town's polluted water to quench their thirst.
Singapore cultivates special orchid varieties and names them after a motley mix of foreign leaders and celebrities as part of its diplomatic repertoire.
Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store.
Global airlines have called for a deal brokered by a United Nations agency to avoid an impasse between China and the European Union over jet pollution.
At least 264 dead bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore over the past three days on Peru's northern coast, officials said as they seek to discover what killed the marine animals.
Scientists expect to find microbes in a lake 4km beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, illustrating that life finds a way to survive in the harshest places.
Scientists have discovered two previously unknown species of cave-dwelling scorpion in central Vietnam.
A director has been following the menace of plastic from Sardinia to the Indian Ocean for a film that aims to combine the art of nature documentary with a campaigning quest.
India has the worst air quality in the world, beating even its neighbour China, according to an annual survey based at Yale and Columbia universities.
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has argued that the Promotion of Access to Information Act prevents access to draft reports, minutes, and research of her fracking task team.
More than a hundred countries now support a French proposal to create a "World Environment Organisation" at the upcoming 20th anniversary conference of the Rio Summit.
Mining in Mongolia is threatening the livelihoods of herders and straining water supplies, says a report, as foreign companies race to exploit the country's rich mineral deposits.
Two Australian adventurers have made Antarctic history by becoming the first team to travel unaided to the South Pole and back.
Agriculture is part of the solution to the world's environmental challenge and must play a key role at next June's Rio summit on sustainable development.
A huge pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is expanding and could lower the temperature of Europe by causing an ocean current to slow down, British scientists think.
The Bulgarian parliament has banned shale oil and gas exploration through hydraulic fracturing or fracking due to environmental concerns following widespread protests.
The 17-deck cruise ship that capsized in the middle of a marine nature reserve shows these ocean giants threaten the coastline and should be banned, Italian environmentalists say.
Civic groups and environmentalists have lashed out at plans to build a two-storey luxury office block on Cape Town's scenic Chapman's Peak Drive.
A cargo ship that caused New Zealand's worst maritime pollution disaster when it ran aground has broken in two in a storm, raising fears of a fresh environmental crisis.
A mineral brought back to Earth by the first men on the Moon and long thought to be unique to the lunar surface has been found in Australian rocks more than one billion years old.
PetroSA says it is not responsible for lumps of oil which washed up at Diaz Beach in Mossel Bay, saying the pollution is from a ship which cleaned its bunker tanks out at sea.
China's Shenhua Group will build the largest coal-fired power station in Asia over the next five years, as the country struggles to meet its energy needs.
Royal Dutch Shell says the worst Nigeria offshore oil spill in more than a decade is now contained.
Authorities have rushed to prevent one of Nigeria's worst recent oil spills from reaching the West African nation's shoreline.
Israel has pledged to release about 28 million cubic metres of water to restore the biblical Jordan River.
The UN's conference on climate change failed to make enough headway in efforts to curb deforestation, experts warn, saying forest preservation plays a central role in the global warming debate.
Qatar has made a fortune on liquefied natural gas exports, but the emirate is now setting its sights on diversifying investments by converting gas fuels.
It will take government four years to change South Africa’s light bulbs.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon region fell to its lowest in 23 years in the year through July, the government says, attributing the drop to its tougher stance against illegal logging.
Countries need to put in place clear policy frameworks before major renewable energy programs are implemented, energy experts say.
Sierra Leone has conferred protected national park status on a remote tract of forest that has attracted attention for its iron ore mining potential.
At the Climate Change Response Expo in Durban, you can drink a Whistling Weasel, or watch a man whip up a tornado at the flick of a switch.
It is not be possible for developing countries, including South Africa, to immediately stop using coal-fired power generation, Standard Bank has said.
Filipino entrepreneur Illac Diaz is aiming to help a million poor people in a year, and with the help of some plastic bottles and a clever social media campaign may do even better.
Countries most vulnerable to climate change are alarmed by proposals from rich and major emerging economies to delay a global deal on greenhouse gases.
The European Union's top climate diplomat, Connie Hedegaard, has urged emerging economies to commit to a second Kyoto period at global climate talks kicking off next week in Durban.
Climate change is weaving a "tapestry of change" in South Africa, researchers say.
No need for big muscles or high-tech contraptions when it comes to protecting African plantations from elephants: a British biologist has discovered that buzzing bees will keep the beasts at bay.
The amount of global warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which cause warming, rose to a new high in 2010, and the rate of increase has accelerated.
Developed nations have to pay for damage to the environment as part of a just transition to low carbon economies, Cosatu says.
Residents of the Canary Island of El Hierro have lived with an active underwater volcano that not only poses a security threat, but also scares off tourists.
Apple has for the first time held talks with environmental campaigners who accuse the company's Chinese manufacturers of widespread pollution.
US President Barack Obama is expected to receive a warm welcome in Australia, but just in case the reception is wilder than expected a firm has offered him insurance against crocodiles.
Rainwater harvesting should be made compulsory in all urban areas, the Agriculture Research Council have said.
Coal is set to remain a major energy source alongside oil over the next 25 years on strong Asian demand and an uncertain outlook for nuclear power.
Scientists from Chile and the Smithsonian Institution have been working to protect a huge collection of whale fossils found in the Atacama desert.
A plan for a R12bn industrial park north of Swakopmund is expected to cause an uproar on environmental grounds.
Johannesburg residents will have to do their own waste separation or risk being fined if new waste management bylaws are put in place, says a report.
The Public Protector has been asked to investigate the controversial sale of a popular dam in Gauteng.
Debbie Harry has revealed she has considered adopting children and would be interested in providing a home for a child affected by the recent earthquake in Japan.
There seems to be little chance that Shell's fracking plans for the Karoo will have an impact on South Africa's hopes of hosting the SKA telescope, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says.
SANParks chief executive David Mabunda has dismissed reports that the development of two luxury lodges would spell the end of the Kruger National Park.
The United Nations has unveiled a strategy to ensure a sustainable future for the planet by investing 2% of wealth generated by the global economy in ten key sectors.
A court in Ecuador has ordered oil giant Chevron to pay billions for allegedly causing environmental damage in the country between 1964 and 1990.
Sting wants to help save dolphins still being brutally slaughtered in Japan, but he believes the best way is by starting a debate.
A groundbreaking US court ruling has set an international precedent and will have three defaulters pay restitution to SA.
Government is in denial over the country's water crisis, says the United Association of South Africa.
Greenwashing – falsely claiming environmentalist credentials – has become the biggest challenge facing the sustainability movement, says an American expert.
The tourism industry must lead the way to take SA into a low carbon economy, tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has said.
Bjork, Iceland's megastar and most famous citizen, is on a new mission: to save her Nordic state's natural resources from vulturish investors she says are ready to feed off Iceland's wounded economy.