The global news media consortium Covering Climate Now today announced a slate of 39 finalists for the first annual Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards. The finalists, including print reporters and photojournalists, digital, television and radio journalists, as well as podcasters and commentators, were selected from nearly 600 entries submitted from 38 countries. Finalists were chosen by a jury of distinguished judges including leading journalists from newsrooms around the world. See the complete list of finalists and their entries.
Covering Climate Now, whose hundreds of partner outlets reach a combined audience of 2 billion people, launched these awards in collaboration with Columbia Journalism Review. The awards celebrate work that provides a model of excellence for journalists to emulate as newsrooms around the world increase their coverage of the climate crisis.
Mark Hertsgaard, the executive director of Covering Climate Now and environment correspondent for The Nation, said, “Powerful storytelling, science-based reporting, and cultural sensitivity were at the heart of this collection of extraordinary journalism. Entries were submitted from every continent except Antarctica, demonstrating that the media’s climate silence has unmistakably ended as journalists rise to the challenge of telling the defining story of our time.”
Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of Columbia Journalism Review, said, “Our goal in starting Covering Climate Now was to cultivate more and better journalism on climate change. These finalists are leading the way, showing us all how to cover a story that is increasingly shaping the future. It’s noteworthy that many of these finalists are young journalists who are often focused on social justice and the inequity of the disproportionate impact of climate change on global cultures. Covering Climate Now is recognizing their growing contribution to the field with an Emerging Journalist award.”
Winners will be announced in early October in a streaming special hosted by Al Roker, NBC News TODAY show weather and feature anchor and co-host of the 3rd Hour of TODAY, and Savannah Sellers, correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, co-anchor of NBC News NOW and co-host of NBC News’ Stay Tuned program. Eschewing the typical format of an awards show, this special program will provide a snapshot of the global climate emergency as reported by the journalists receiving Covering Climate Now’s awards. The awards program will stream with a live chat engaging winners, judges, and colleagues in the journalism community. Register here for streaming updates.
Organized by journalists, for journalists, Covering Climate Now is a non-profit, non-partisan consortium of more than 400 news outlets working to improve media coverage of the climate story. Its partner outlets represent 57 countries and including some of the biggest names in news — The Guardian, NBC News, CBS News, Bloomberg, Agence-France Presse, Reuters, Nature, Scientific American, Al Jazeera, VICE World News, and NowThis — as well as local and independent news organizations from around the world.
The Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards are made possible by the generous support of the Michaux Family Foundation, Wayne Crookes, Bob and Sandra Taylor, and a founding grant from the Schumann Media Center.