Covering a heating world with fewer resources: pitch clinic and practical tips
Sat 18 April 2026
11:30
Free
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As the impacts of climate change intensify worldwide, climate journalism is facing a paradox: interest in climate issues remains high but coverage is declining, said the 2025 Reuters News Audience Report. Climate desks are being downsized, and spaces where climate journalists can meet, such as the Oxford Climate Journalism Network and the Climate Arena Conference, are disappearing. This means that the future of climate reporting is increasingly resting on the shoulders of freelancers.
Covering Climate Now and Clean Energy Wire propose a practical, solutions-oriented session exploring this shift and equipping freelance reporters with the tools they need to succeed. The panel will examine why climate coverage is decreasing, what this means for the profession, and how freelancers can continue producing impactful cross-beat journalism that connects climate to key issues like technology, defence, culture, sports, and beyond.
The session will include a pitch clinic. Participants will have the opportunity to submit a story idea before the session. Covering Climate Now and Clean Energy Wire will curate a selection for review and feedback during the event (anonymously so as not to put anyone on the spot). The strongest pitch(es) will be considered for publication by The Guardian.
Moderated by Santiago Sáez.
Organised in association with Covering Climate Now and Clean Energy Wire.
Modified more than a month ago
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Milou Dirkx
Milou Dirkx is a climate journalist and lead of the network and media programmes team at Clean Energy Wire (CLEW). She works with journalists around the world, coordinating CLEW's international collaborations, events, and other opportunities for journalistic engagement. She has established several cross-border collaborations and reports on the linkage between politics, energy policy and climate change.
Alan Evans
Alan Evans is deputy environment editor at the Guardian. He has been at the publication since 2008, and has previously worked on the science, foreign news, film and Australia desks.
Santiago Saez
Santiago Sáez is a climate journalist based in Vienna, currently acting as Director of Training for Covering Climate Now. He works with individuals, newsrooms and journalism networks to strengthen climate coverage, with a particular focus on editorial strategy, story framing, and long-term newsroom capacity building. He co-founded Climática, Spain's first professional climate news outlet, and has led editorial and training initiatives for Climate Tracker. His freelance work has been published by international outlets including Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle and Mongabay.
Brett Simpson
Brett Simpson is a freelance climate and human rights journalist and 2024-2026 Institute of Current World Affairs fellow based in Tromsø, Norway (her dispatches from the north can be read here). Her print and audio work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, National Geographic, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Nation, Reveal, NPR, The World, and more. From 2023-2024, Brett was a European Journalism Fellow at Freie Universität in Berlin. From 2022-2023, she was a Fulbright Fellow to Germany, researching the European energy transition. In 2023, with support from the International Women's Media Foundation Fund for Women Journalists, she traveled to Svalbard to report on war-stalled Arctic climate projects. In 2022, with support from the UC Berkeley 11th Hour Food and Farming Fellowship and the Food and Environment Reporting Network, Brett reported on ancient water from California's Mojave Desert and on fisheries conflicts from the shores of Southeast Alaska. Her work has also been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the U.C. Berkeley Human Rights Center, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Transatlantic Media Fellowship, The Overseas Press Club Foundation, and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. Brett received her Master's from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2021, and a B.A. in English from Princeton University in 2016.
Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo
Il Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo di Perugia è un evento annuale che riunisce professionisti dei media, esperti di comunicazione e appassionati di informazione da tutto il mondo. Si svolge nel centro storico di Perugia e offre conferenze, dibattiti, workshop e opportunità di networking sui temi più rilevanti del giornalismo contemporaneo.