This year, Climate Tracker is proud to have contributed towards improving climate journalism around the world, by supporting promising young journalists in the Global South to tell climate stories close to their hearts.
Articles written by our fellows and contributors this year cover a wide range of topics, from the impacts of climate change on grassroots communities to community-level adaptation efforts and solutions. We also focused on structural issues such as government action (and the lack of), fossil fuel investment, and the global fund of loss and damage.
Our 2022 editorial vision focussed particularly on justice and gender. With these lenses, we were able to move away from isolating climate talk as purely ecological discussions and reveal deeper nuances. Our fellows then demonstrated how climate change intersects with global economics and existing social issues.
With the year winding up, we take this time to reflect and share this curation from 2022.
Global Conference
This November, we sent 21 fellows to cover COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, both in-person and virtually. Our fellows Flavia, Vivian, and Ryan published articles that closely monitored the loss and damage fund, one of the key issues of COP this year.
Other fellows brought focus to how these developments were received by various countries Chermaine wrote on China and Sylvia on Kenya. Meanwhile others critiqued the conference itself, exposing how COP27 lacked voices of women, indigenous peoples, youths, and was instead attended by hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists.
Our fellows found the experience a fulfilling one. As Yamlek, Ethan, Chermain, and Tyrell testified below.
This experience has helped me to better understand and cover more effectively the topic of climate journalism within the realities of my region. I think it also helped me to position myself internationally with other colleagues and helped me to find other topics of interest, focused on climate, that I will be covering over the next year. It was great and the LATAM team was amazing.
Yamlek Mojica, Costa Rica/Nicaragua
It has been a deeply enriching experience. I have made excellent connections and even people I would consider friends. I am a better journalist and more resilient, independent individual because of the overall experience, both negative and positive.
Ethan van Diemen, South Africa
I find the trainings quite helpful to kick start the preparation, and I did learn a lot during the process, so I definitely feel great and honoured to be part of the fellowship.
Chermaine Lee, Hong Kong
The experience gave me in-depth knowledge of the COP process and helped sharpen my journalistic skills for future conferences. Additionally, I think the fellowship was a great way to learn from seasoned climate journalists from around the world as they gave advice on how to produce accurate, relevant, and thought-provoking climate pieces.
Tyrell Gittens, Trinidad and Tobago
Around the same time, we sent a team to cover the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. Our team emphasised on how G20 member states – responsible for 80% of global emissions – must play a role in reducing emissions, while also reflecting how the G20 could contribute to the COP27.
Gender Lens
This year, we published a number of climate stories from a gender perspective. Hadeer El Hadary reported how women face disproportionate impacts to climate change.We also highlighted how women across the globe took an active role in several initiatives crucial to climate mitigation and adaptation. In Brazil, our fellow Marcela Maria brought the story of women led fire brigades in the Pantanal. While in Uganda, Colline Saabwe wrote about a climate centre led by women that is decentralising knowledge about climate resilience.
Justice Lens
Our focus has also been on bringing on unrepresented voices in the media. Stories by our fellows Charley Piringi from Solomon Island, Kehinde Ogunyale from Nigeria and Lorenso Kasmai from SurinameDid justice to this approach by bringing in voices from indigenous voices.
We continued to maintain this perspective while reporting about energy transition. Where more often than not, news coverage of renewable energy focuses on technological developments, markets, and government subsidies, we wanted to explore through our reportage whether this transition to renewables is fair to everyone affected.. With that, our stories highlighted how renewable energy technologies are still not affordable for the economically weak, as the case in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Voices from Small Island States
We are very proud of our Caribbean editorial expansion this year. After we expanded our operation in this region highly vulnerable to climate change, we were able to listen to the voices of communities, activists, researchers, and policy makers from the region.For the full story of our Caribbean expansion, read the reflection of our Caribbean Director, Dizzanne Billy, here.
This focus continued even at COP27 where our fellow, Ryan secured exclusive interviews with the chair of Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, as well as UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. More than that, we are also proud to have been able to highlight the voices of farmers, fishermen, persons with disability, entrepreneurs, and experts in the region.
Thanks to you
To sum up, we are elated that we were able to incorporate crucial voices to the global conversation. We hope that they have been contributive in raising awareness, starting conversations, and even changing policy.
To you, our readers around the world, thank you for following the coverage of our fellows and contributors in 2022. We look forward to publishing more climate justice stories for you in 2023 and beyond.