GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—COP26 president Alok Sharma held back tears as he accepted India’s last-minute motion to weaken the summit’s pledge to “phase out” coal. Sharma had been saying for months that he wanted COP26 to “consign coal to history.” And until India insisted otherwise at the eleventh hour, it looked like the summit might achieve that scientifically […]
Read More… from COP26 President Fights Back Tears as the Summit Comes to a Close
This story is publishable by Covering Climate Now partners. Glasgow, Scotland—It’s an article of faith in US political and media circles that American leadership is essential to global climate progress.That message was repeated Tuesday at the United Nations climate conference COP26 as Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of […]
Read More… from Who Is the World’s Greatest Climate Champion?
This story is publishable by Covering Climate Now partners. GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—“I’d feel ridiculous if I weren’t here,” said Tom Birch, a teacher from Edinburg, as he carried a sign reading “Soon Humanity Will Be Net-Zero.” Birch was among the many tens of thousands of marchers who filled the streets of Glasgow, host of the United […]
Read More… from “We’re Here To Call For Climate Justice,” Say Glasgow Protesters
Some of the best news out of Glasgow so far is that the US media is finally paying serious attention to the climate crisis. We’ll see if it lasts, now that US president Joe Biden and other world leaders have left for home. Indeed, by Wednesday, the third day of the UN COP26 climate conference, […]
Read More… from We Can’t Defuse the Climate Crisis Without Tougher, Louder News Coverage
Ahead of COP26, ABC News announced this week that it has joined Covering Climate Now as part of its effort to expand coverage of the climate crisis. ABC News joins US television broadcasters CBS News, NBC News, PBS Newshour, and Democracy Now! as a partner of the global journalism collaborative. In its announcement, ABC outlined […]
This June, at the G7 summit held in Cornwall, England, journalists had a hot scoop about a bicycle. To commemorate the meeting, President Joe Biden had gifted the host, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a modern, lightweight take on a classic English tourer, hand-made at a bike shop in Philadelphia and emblazoned with the Union Jack. CNN, BBC, and The […]
Read More… from Cover the COP26 Climate Summit Like Our Lives Depend on It
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter. We’re on the cusp of a major climate event — the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland — and already world leaders are lowering expectations. But it’s essential as journalists that we remember our responsibility to the public and not let politicians and diplomats treat us as stenographers. The […]
Read More… from Diplomats Are Lowering Expectations Ahead of COP26
A longstanding challenge for climate coverage is that climate change is so big, so all-encompassing, that journalists sometimes struggle with where to start. That can go double for local journalists, whose scope is necessarily hyperfocused. The climate story threads together megacorporations, heads of state, our forests, the oceans, and even what’s for dinner. For outlets whose […]
Read More… from The Most Important Climate Summit in History Is a Local News Story, Too
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter. Activists, scientists, and other members of civil society qualify as newsmakers just as much as government officials and business executives — and we journalists should cover them accordingly. This week has furnished us with a few powerful reminders of that. The climate activist Greta Thunberg, for example, is […]