Since its inception in 2021, the Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards program has enabled us to amplify extraordinary work from a wide range of outlets, big and small. We’ve found that the awards serve as an opportunity to boost morale within the climate journalism community and bring journalists from all across the world into conversation with one another.
“This recognition speaks of the great stories journalists all over the world are telling on climate change and the environment,” Nigerian journalist Nchetachi Chukwuajah wrote of the awards on LinkedIn. Chukwuajah won a CCNow Journalism Award in 2024 for a Nigerian Tribune story, which showed how the impacts of climate change are often just the beginning of complex and harrowing cause-and-effect chains.
“Such an honor to see my name on this list in the company of so many journalists I deeply admire,” said American journalist Whitney Bauck, whose winning work in 2024, for Atmos, explored the double-edged sword of the music industry when it comes to climate change: The industry is a surprising source of carbon emissions, due to power-intensive streaming and globetrotting tours, and yet, for many, music has served as a critical source of inspiration to combat climate change.
“It is great to be in good company such as this!” said Indian journalist Sushmita. Her winning story, for IndiaSpend, explored why local climate change adaptation efforts — such as those undertaken by vulnerable groups in India’s Jharkhand state — might sometimes be communities’ best hope for weathering difficulties to come, in the absence of better governance. (The impact of Sushmita’s winning story was truly global. Originally funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, her work was subsequently the basis for a community education project in Mozambique that was selected for one of the center’s Impact Seed Fund grants.)
It’s not only the winners of the CCNow Journalism Awards who have expressed enthusiasm for the community at the heart of our awards program. Each year, more than 100 journalists from dozens of countries and all corners of the climate journalism industry join us as judges; year after year, judges report that the opportunity not only to reflect on excellent journalism but be in direct touch with a wide diversity of global colleagues is a reason they love participating. Notably, this year, Chukwuajah, Bauck, and Sushmita will serve as judges.