With the earth’s temperature reaching or exceeding 1.5 degrees celsius consistently between July 2023 and June 2024, the environment and climate change has become a hot topic for the news to cover.

More outlets are covering the issue, but that doesn’t mean there are less challenges for reporters. Below is advice and tips from environmental journalists, who spoke at a Fetisov Journalism Awards webinar, on reporting this pressing issue.

Community consideration

Any news story needs to have the audience and the community affected at the heart of it. Tom Brown, a freelance investigative journalist, stressed the importance of communicating with locals and having a journalist on the ground during his report, Choking Kurdistan. 

Fredrick Mugira, a multiple award-winning water and climate change journalist in Uganda, said that stories on transboundary topics, such as reporting on the River Nile, should have a regional significance and that it’s important to respect the history and culture of people in that region – ‘It’s important to take these stories back to the communities’. 

Aidan White, honorary advisor for the Fetisov Journalism Awards and president of the Ethical Journalism Network, concurred:

‘It’s very important, this question of connection with the community. Whether you are in Latin America, Europe, Africa, or the Middle East. This issue of connecting with the community seems to me to be absolutely the cardinal principle for securing trust in what journalists are trying to do’.

The need to collaborate with other journalists

Journalism can often be a fight to get a story or scoop before another paper or broadcaster. Tom Gibson, EU representative and advocacy manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has been seeing a change when it comes to environmental reporting:

‘My personal experience is of the often localized nature of environmental journalists, that journalists can be working in geographically isolated areas, and I think traditionally, reporting on the climate was work of specialised reporters or niche publications – but it’s not the case today. Mainstream international media outlets are investing in coverage on climate issues, and are employing special correspondence and this cross border collaboration question is interesting.’

Fredrick also stressed the importance of cross border collaboration because ‘there are resources that go beyond our borders. So why would we compete when we are writing a story with one resource?’. Tom Brown showed the results that collaborative journalism could bring with his report on Kurdistan, with several reporters working together across different countries to find the information they required.

Getting the facts straight

With increases in misinformation, journalists need to make sure they are offering up reliable and fact-based information. This is especially important for a sometimes divisive topic such as the environment. Tom Gibson referenced the press and planet in danger report by UNESCO which said that there had been a 42% increase in attacks against environmental journalists between 2019 and 2023 compared to the preceding four years.

To ensure that the data in articles is correct, Fredrick advised that ‘journalists have a tight relationship with scientists, who can provide the research and the facts. Then we as journalists can inform our communities to make informed decisions.’ It was also a point that Aidan felt was important for environmental journalists to consider:

‘We need to ensure that the information that we are putting out, particularly related to the climate and environmental issues, is sound. It needs to be accurate, fact based and reliable. In this mix of incredible problems of disinformation which exist on all sorts of levels, it’s really very important that there is one stream of public interest information which is emerging, and that should be journalism which is actually reliable.’

Writing an environmental story but missing that expert to provide the facts you need? Check out our list of experts that we compiled for Earth Day in April. And if you want to reach them, then send a request via our Journalist Enquiry Service.