Facing an alarming climate crisis, many media outlets have expressed their intentions to improve their coverage of climate change. But such a significant change requires training, for journalists, editors-in-chief, and students. 

Back in September 2022, a 600-word document titled “Upgrading journalistic practices to tackle the ecological emergency: a charter” was published. In it, 13 rules were outlined with the objective to encourage French news outlets to provide better coverage of climate change. In its syllabus, the charter clearly states that the media has a crucial role to play and calls for journalists to “fully incorporate this issue”  in their own work. Close to 100 news organizations signed this document, including France Télévision and TF1. By doing so, they also agree to train their journalists to report on climate change. 

The charter was inspired by an older initiative, Covering Climate Now, founded back in 2015. The consortium now counts hundreds of signatories and the number is still growing, with newspapers such as The Boston Globe and the Miami Herald joining the movement in December 2022. On its website, the organization also provides training programs such as “Climate 101” and “How to cover COP27”.

Training and reorganizing newsrooms

Behind the French project are two journalists, Loup Espargilière and Juliette Quef, co-founders of vert.eco, a website dedicated to covering climate change. Back in March 2022 they shared their own “manifest”, which turned into the final charter months later. In addition to working on their own website, they are now both committed to bringing their knowledge to newsrooms across France. 

AFP is also planning on releasing a new program dedicated to climate change, following the success of the release of a series of lessons on fake news and misinformation. Patrick Galey, a climate journalist who has worked for the agency for the past 8 years, says that AFP has also organized sessions on the topic internally. “I personally never had specialized training” he explains “but I do think it’s a good idea”. In addition to training, he also acknowledges other efforts made in the newsroom. “When I started doing climate and science, that was part of the service société”, he remembers,” I was working with people who were doing restaurant reviews and book reviews. To AFP’s credit, it has now rearranged a lot of its editorial pôles”

Journalism schools are also starting to work on climate change

Journalists and news outlets are not the only ones taking interest in this topic. Journalism schools also intend on adapting to this new demand. When the charter was published, a conference of 14 journalism schools also announced that they would be signing the document. 

In the south of France near Toulouse, one school decided to start a dedicated course. Grégoire Souchay, an independent journalist, was called by the ISCPA to run the program.”I had done a few training programs and some workshops in schools, but never a full course so it was quite a challenge !”, he admits. During the 15 hours allocated by the school from October to November, students attended lessons on analyzing articles, understanding certain key metrics, and learning about important institutions. “The idea is to provide the necessary tools to our future colleges” he explains.

 A few years ago, climate journalism wasn’t even a career that students were aiming for, Galey recalls. “They were project ideas more than entire specialism, so it’s really good that that exists now”.

Although Souchay does see the importance of teaching students, he argues that the primary issue comes from certain journalists and editors-in-chief. “I think it’s easier to work with students than with journalists because they are still in the early stages of learning, and they come from a generation that is aware of the issue”. 

Patrick Galey hopes these young journalists will be able to take the mantle once their time comes: “The thing that encourages me is that the correspondents and students of today are the editors in chief of tomorrow”.

This article was originally written on the 28th of January for Web Journalism.

Owen Huchon

Cover image by Tony Webster/WikiMediaCommons/CC BY-SA 2.0