We’re positive climate change is happening. But reporting doesn’t have to be all negative.

In News Decoder’s Top Tips, we share advice for young people from experts in journalism, media literacy and education. In this week’s Top Tip, Amina McCauley, News Decoder’s climate education program manager lays out some suggestions for telling stories about climate change. You can find more of our learning resources here. And learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program or by forming a News Decoder Club in your school.

Floods in Spain and the Philippines. Drought in Brazil. Extreme heat in the United States. People are beginning to migrate to escape extreme weather and natural disasters. Agriculture is going through massive change.

The climate crisis is becoming more and more interrelated with everything — from economics, culture and psychology to housing, agriculture, travel and emergency.

If you’re a journalist or plan to be a journalist, you’re going to cover the climate at some point, no matter your area of interest. But it’s a topic that increasingly leaves our audiences feeling hopeless and disengaged. How can we cover the climate crisis in a way that informs about the problem, while providing hope and room for action?

But we’ve got some tips to help you produce environmental stories that engage, empower and inform. Think of it as your environmental storytelling toolkit.

Know your audience.

No matter what you as a journalist or an individual might believe is the best way to report on climate change, your audience knows best. That’s what Santiago Sáez, director of training at Covering Climate Now said in a lecture last month.

Readers, viewers and listeners are not just spectators. They’re participants in this narrative of climate change. We need them to tell us their stories and they need us to help them understand the story.

The majority of the global population believe the climate crisis is a real concern. So they deserve information that is accurate and useful, Sáez said.

The problem is that people are avoiding news. Why? It’s repetitive, hard to trust and people feel powerless. And that makes them anxious. In one study, 72% of people between 18 and 34 said that negative environmental news stories affect their mental health.

But as Nabil Wakim, editor-in-chief of French newspaper Le Monde said recently in a talk in Paris hosted by the Columbia Global Centers, anxiety is not the problem — climate change is.

“We have been doing a pretty good job at covering the science of climate change, we are pretty good at reporting from COPS and from any other summit,” Saéz said.  “But we are collectively failing at a crucial part of this story and that part is the solutions.”

Here’s what Covering Climate Now thinks we should do.

Focus on three pillars.

When covering the climate crisis in a way that includes and engages with audiences who need guidance, Covering Climate Now says journalists should focus on the three following “pillars”: Humanize. Localize. Solutionize.

People care about stuff happens to other people. That’s why we need to humanize our stories. Don’t get bogged down in the science, Covering Climate Now’s TV engagement coordinator David Dickson said, don’t focus too much on the numbers. Instead, find the individuals who will tell their story.

He said to start with human suffering and then dive deeper. Don’t just gather quotes. Engage.

It’s about “understanding the practical and emotional implications of climate on people’s lives,” Dickson said. “Ask for feelings. Highlight these feelings.”

And because climate change is an ongoing story, make sure to follow up with your sources again, after your story has been published.

Sáez said that people also care most about stories that take place nearby. So it shouldn’t be hard to localize the story because climate change is happening everywhere.

Find local experts, report on community action and present relatable spaces. Show your audience that climate change is happening here, where you are. And solutions are being worked on too. Talk to local activists, local political leaders and find out why this solution is being implemented, or why it is not being implemented.

Covering Climate Now points to an article in The World, about African nations’ feelings about COP28.

The first line of the story reads, “Bismark Owusu Nortey parked his truck along a road at an industrial hub in the Greater Accra region of southern Ghana, where thick plumes of black smoke poured into the sky.” It straight away humanizes and localizes.

We need solutions.

The third pillar, that arguably ties the other two together, is solutionize.

More people are willing to engage in civil conversation across the political spectrum when the story contains or is focused on solutions, Sáez said.

Solutions are everywhere, and they’re not just technological advancements. They are political and social too — they are systemic. Keep an eye out for community solutions and political solutions.

Sáez made a clear distinction, though, between solutions stories and misleadingly positive stories. Solutions stories are not necessarily good news, and it’s certainly not advocacy or sugar coating. It is the reporting of a problem and a critical and constructive look at its potential solutions.

Journalists must be skeptical. At every step of the way, enquire deeply. There are no perfect solutions, so make sure to report any shortcomings. Interrogate the solutions.

Recognise greenwashing, and learn how to untangle it.

The Solutions Journalism Network has four questions journalists should ask themselves when reporting on a solution:

•  What evidence or empirical data indicates that it is effective?
•  Has it been effective for the communities more affected by the climate crisis?
•  What insights and information can be used by stakeholders to make decisions to respond to the problem? 
•  What are the limitations?

Forget objectivity.

A charter, titled “Upgrading journalistic practices to tackle the ecological emergency” has been signed by more than 2,000 journalists, French journalist and filmmaker Paloma Moritz told the audience during the Writing Climate talk at the Columbia Global Paris Centre.

The charter includes 13 principles journalists are encouraged to follow. Number 4 states: “Widen the scope of coverage; Refrain from solely calling on individuals to take responsibility and action, and consider upheavals as a systemic problem requiring political responses.”

Through your reporting, hold the powerful to account and don’t get hung up on the old adage of “objectivity.”

Neutrality does not exist, Moritz said. It is difficult to stay neutral when facing climate change and extinction.

Le Monde’s editor-in-chief Nabil Wakim said that the newspaper is changing the way they cover climate. They know the scientific consensus. Now journalists must work to build safe public debate, informed common spaces and democratic conversations on what we should do.

“You don’t have to be neutral to be rigorous,” he said.

Empowering Youth through Environmental Journalism (EYES), a News Decoder project co-funded by the European Union and in collaboration with The Climate Academy and Superfluous, is working to bring climate journalism education to classrooms all around the world. If you’re an educator and want to get involved as a teacher or school, get in touch with amina.mccauley@news-decoder.com 

Three questions to consider:

1. What is one way journalists have covered climate in the past that can be improved?
2. How can you cover solutions for environmental problems responsibly?
3. Can you think of an area of climate change that should be reported on more?

Amina McCauley is News Decoder’s Climate Education program manager. Born in Australia and living in Denmark, Amina has a background in reporting, media analysis and teaching and a particular interest in the relationship between humans, their environment, and the media.