Climate Arena 2024

From logging to agricultural land conversion, human activities on land significantly impact the global cycles of greenhouse gases. As a result, not only does it affect the climate, but also plants, mammals, birds, lichens and fungi.  

But these complex "cause and effect" relationships are difficult to grasp, making it challenging to get a big picture and report on them effectively. More than ever before, we need a "systems" way of looking at the complex relationships between climate, land use and biodiversity to dissect how they are influenced by human actions and driven by factors like the international trade.

This session will feature scientists working on these issues and -interactively- unfold some of this complexity using systems thinking tools, and discuss how journalists can report on these pressing matters.

In collaboration with CLEVER and DETECT projects.

The EU has been pedalling back on the Green Deal and now the Parliament has shifted more to the right. What’s next? Come hear from two experienced journalists and a lobby expert about what to watch out for in the next EU legislative term in the context of chemicals.  

Where will the EU be focusing on after indefinitely shelving the REACH revision that would regulate companies on toxic chemicals? How does the legislative process work on climate regulations at the EU level? What will be the lobbyists to watch out for and how do they operate? What is the corporate playbook and what should journalist be aware of?

Food production is a leading cause of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and premature deaths, but it is also a major victim of the climate crisis. This is the result of decades of corporate consolidation, a myopic focus on efficiency and productivity, and an over-reliance on techno-fixes. Big Agriculture resists changes that the public supports, with a playbook similar to Big Tobacco and Big Oil.

Much of this is hidden from us by complexity and a lack of media attention. But investigative reporters can play a critical role in changing this by using data, FOIA, and open source tools. Lighthouse Reports' Food Systems Newsroom will lead a discussion about how innovative techniques and collaborative methodologies can invigorate food reporting, helping journalists to reframe consumer-oriented reporting into narrative-driven stories about a broken system and how it can be changed.

Participatory and deliberative democracy processes are becoming common among European cities. Also, the European Union invites all citizens to take active part in political decisions. However, effective media coverage of these initiatives is far from being achieved. How can we bring them to the center of media attention? What can these assemblies do to grab a journalist's attention and what can journalists learn from these processes?
There is a general consensus on the efficacy of these participatory initiatives in terms of citizens' engagement and collaboration, but how could they become part of the public debate through media coverage so we can change climate policies on the local level?
Starting from the experiences of the Climate Citizens’ Assemblies in Bologna and Brussels, the session is intended to be an interactive and open discussion.
Take your seat in the fish-bowl and bring your ideas!

Without looking it up, would you know if the "Clean Resource Innovation Network” is an oil and gas lobbying organisation? Lobbyists often hide under unintuitive or misleading affiliations that obscure their origins. The work of uncovering their identities can be time-consuming and challenging.  

This workshop will outline an approach to using web scraping and Large Language Models (LLMs), like those powering ChatGPT, to systematically identify organisations that are affiliated with the fossil fuel industry. These techniques could also be adapted to other climate projects, such as identifying climate misinformation.

The workshop will:

- Describe some of the challenges of web scraping at scale and the technical tools that can be used to address those challenges
- Describe how to design and test a successful LLM prompt
- How to identify the right LLM for the project you want to do
- How to test your approach and validate the results

ps. You should have a Google account to open the link that'll be shared during the session. 

The responsibility of financial institutions in the climate disaster we experience is underreported and mostly told by NGOs in their reports. In this presentation, journalists Josephine Moulds (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) will explain how journalists can follow the money trail of fossil fuel projects all around the world in order to shed light on the banks’ double standards when it comes to their green commitments. Josephine combined financial data, OSINT, and on-the-ground reporting to write hard hitting stories covering coal, gas and oil industry in three continents, and their ties to big finance. In this session, she wants to enable you to do the same by sharing methods and tactics. Join!

Beef, soy and palm oil are just a few examples of agricultural commodities that put global forests and native species at risk during production, processing, and transportation. There are valuable investigations done tying forest loss to produce sold in European markets. But tracing supply chains remains notoriously difficult, especially when commodities end up hidden in non-food products like paper, furniture, and animal feeds.  

This practical tools session will explore Trase (https://www.trase.earth/), a supply chain monitoring tool developed by the Stockholm Environmental Institute and a non-profit called Global Canopy, along with Selo Verde, to trace the livestock production chain throughout the state of Pará in Brazil. The tools are widely used by researchers, policymakers, practitioners and investigative journalists who revealed, e.g. a large volume of beef imported from deforestation-linked giants in Brazil ended up in Germany.

In collaboration with CLEVER project.

Intensive animal farming is a huge climate matter. Its mass scale contributes heavily on emissions and its impact destroys groundwater resources and soil. At the same time, animals themselves are suffering both human actions and the effects of climate crisis. The majority of Europeans are in full support of stringent regulations on animal welfare but there is intensive lobbying effort that succeeds in shutting down any efforts.  

Animals are an alarmingly underreported topic in the media. In this panel, two journalists with extensive experience on writing on these issues will explain how the system works, where the stories are, and the best practices on reporting on animal-related issues in Europe.

The impact of the fossil industry on our climate is undisputed. Yet, the industry is finding ways to stay on top of the discourse and climate action. We knew they lied about what they knew. Now they’re changing narratives and use different tactics. And there is no shortage of their enablers.  

Come to this session to hear from three journalists who will tell you how to investigate the players behind the scenes. Sam Bright will talk about social media influencers and how to spot them; Leonie Sontheimer will discuss the role of PR agencies and how they operate; Elena Kolb will tell you all about insurance companies. The reporters will share their tips on how to find information, how to report on enablers, and how to identify a good story.

Not a single European government currently pursues a climate policy compatible with the Paris Agreement's goal of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 ºC by 2100. Yet, many European countries continue to present themselves as pioneers in climate protection.

In this session, we will cover methodologies that allow us to scrutinise and fact-check governmental claims about climate action. We will learn how to systematically investigate climate policies, and the governance systems they seek to influence. The speakers will present their methodologies for you to take home, and use in your next investigation. Speakers and participants will also discuss lessons-learned and challenges from developing, testing and sharing research methodologies.

The session will cover:

1. Introduction to two methodologies for investigating climate policies and governance systems:

• The Climate Policy Gap, which aims to help us reveal the divide between governments' climate pledges and what they are actually doing, and quantify the under-reaction between diagnosis and government action;
• Follow the Governance (FTG), which aims to help us research and map, in a structured way, ownership of resources and infrastructure, actors and responsibilities, norms and established practices, and decision-making processes related to a given field or activity.

2. Suggestions and tips on applying these two methodologies for your own research

3. Discussion on developing, applying and sharing research methodologies, based on the examples presented in the session.

Wetlands are a hugely important part of the ecological systems and are suffering throughout Europe but they do not get enough media attention. In addition, improving the overall status of the Mediterranean wetlands is one of the top priorities enlisted by the European Nature Restoration Law, since they are key nature-based solutions against the climate crisis.  

A cross-border investigation, stemmed by a project developed within the Climate Arena Fellowship and partially supported by Journalismfund and SISSA School, has shown that little effort is put into effectively preserving and restoring these environments when heavily polluted or degraded.

Involving a team of data scientists, investigations focused on the main wetland near Oristano (Sardinia), where there is a long-standing plan to define up a much-discussed protected area, and the saltmarsh in Cervia (Emilia-Romagna) strongly affected by the disastrous 2023 flooding. Both stories revealed that political and commercial interests prevented the application of effective protective policies, in some cases further damaging the environment.

They used a combination of investigative approaches (data science, AI analysis of satellite imagery and field reporting on the ground) confirmed the poor status of wetlands in these two countries. The project has also served as a pilot to develop a collaborative approach between science and investigative journalists and a group of data scientists based at SISSA post-graduate School in Trieste, Italy.

In this session, two journalists and the data scientists involved in the project will discuss their investigative approaches encompassing data science, satellite journalism and field reporting on the ground to investigate the effectiveness or the lack of efficacy of protective measures.

Their project can be read here: https://facta.eu/focus-on/swampower/  

Countries across the world have committed to be Net Zero by 2050 or sooner, but real climate action happens at the lower levels of governance. How can journalists find the data they need on local and regional action and untangle the web of relationships and responsibilities on climate adaptation? And how to interpret these?

In Germany, a team of over 20 journalists created the first comprehensive fact base on climate adaptation in Germany. With expert advice from TU Dortmund University and through surveys, the team analysed whether all 400 German districts, independent cities and regional associations were prepared for extreme weather events like heat, drought, heavy rain and flood.

In the UK, the NGO mySociety, in partnership with Climate Emergency UK, has wrangled data from the UK’s 395 local governments for the last three years to develop a comprehensive picture of the UK’s climate ambition and progress.

In this session, they will tell you how you can collect this type of information in your own country, deal with (big & dirty) data, collaborate with civil society and/or scientists, and how you can write your adaptation stories so they make sense.

Come join us for a dive into the murky world of plastics. There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation around plastics recycling among the public, but even among journalists too. In this session, you’ll hear two journalists who worked on this topic discussing the inner workings of the plastics industry, the lobbying against regulations, and how plastics offsetting became the new license for the industry to pollute even more. They will share their work, their methods and what to look out for if you want to investigate this big topic.

This is our (recurring) roundtable to bring together journalists from South and Eastern Europe so we can talk about challenges we face reporting on the climate and the environment, as well as share strategies, tactics, methods and tips for reporting on the climate in tough regions. This is a space to have an honest peer-to-peer discussion on what works and what doesn't in regions where the media landscape is already problematic and the audience might need to be engaged with differently.

You don't need to be from Southern or Eastern Europe to join — come to share your experiences from your country, let's hear and learn from each other.

This session is a practical introduction to LobbyFacts - the EU lobbying database. LobbyFacts enables journalists, activists, and researchers to analyse data from the official EU Transparency Register, tracking lobbyists, their networks, the topics they lobby about, and their influence at the EU level over time. Join lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory's Vicky Cann for a detailed look at the Brussels lobby scene and how the available data can help you to nail your climate stories.

A pub quiz with the theme of ... climate (surprise!). Winning team will get free tickets for Climate Arena 2025, courtesy of the European Cross Border Journalism Programme [Up to 4 tickets]