The Climate Blueprint: A New Resource Available for Climate Journalists
It’s Climate Week in New York City, and while there are plenty of events scheduled on a variety of issues and industries, there aren’t many places for climate journalists to gather, connect and learn as peers.
During Climate Week 2024, we are proud to introduce The Climate Blueprint, a collection of reflections that relay best practices, case studies and guidance for climate journalists everywhere. It covers a range of 14 different topics — things like how to create better climate visuals, tracking impact, working with scientists, and how to spot myths and disinformation when covering climate solutions.
In 2023, SJN brought together more than 200 climate journalists for the Climate Changes Everything conference, along with our partners at Covering Climate Now, The Guardian, The Nation and Columbia Journalism Review. Over two days, everyone discussed the need to grow climate coverage around the world and provide tangible ways newsrooms of all types could do this. Key to the event’s success was ensuring all attendees could participate throughout.
The tagline of the event was “Creating a Blueprint for Media Transformation,” and upon reflection, it became clear that this conference was just the beginning of these conversations. We’ve spent the last year continuing the dialogue and capturing the priorities raised by participating journalists. All this collaborative discussion and feedback informed what we are releasing today.
Every journalist who participated in this process took the time to contribute their unique perspectives based on their particular context. Every writer who contributed to the final product distilled these conversations and added their expertise. We are particularly grateful to the contributors. They dedicated their time, expertise and passion to this project.
I would also like to acknowledge Breanna Draxler, senior editor at Yes!, who deftly edited the entire package, as well as our advisors from Covering Climate Now, Mekdela Maskal and Anna Hiatt. Plus, none of this would have come to life without Marie von Hafften, technical lead at SJN, and Kristen Merritt, who provided the illustrations.
We don’t claim this work to be definitive. Given the fast-paced nature of the news cycle, it’s not often in our industry that we take the time to reflect and strategize across organizations as peers. As the climate crisis continues to unfold and the possibilities of climate solutions continue to grow, we hope these conversations and this blueprint continue to help journalists meet the moment in service to our readers and communities.
Angela K. Evans
SJN climate manager
