Climate in context: covering the climate crisis in a fractured world

The climate crisis isn’t just about carbon emissions or melting glaciers — it cuts across global issues like armed conflict, mass migration, and corporate abuses of people's rights. As journalists, we must show audiences how this crisis shapes — and is shaped by — other major forces in the world.
This session will feature reporters and editors who have made it their mission to keep the climate crisis front and center by covering it in context. Their work explores tough questions: Should Indigenous communities retain full control over natural resources critical to Europe’s green transition? Should the world continue buying solar panels from China's Uyghur region, despite evidence that they’re built by forced labor? And how can we tell meaningful stories about climate degredation in war zones?
Our panelists embrace the complexity and contradictions of these stories by pursuing climate coverage that moves beyond solutions journalism to help readers connect the dots between climate change and the other forces fracturing our world.
We’ll also discuss how to keep readers engaged and inspired, despite the grim realities of the issues at hand. What are some strategies for reporting more engaging, impactful, uplifting and even fun stories about the climate? How do we connect with audiences when it may feel easier for them to look away? This session will inspire newsroom teams to pursue climate coverage that helps readers glimpse a post-carbon world that’s more equal, less divided, and worth fighting for.
Moderated by Ellery Roberts Biddle.