22 Dec 2017, 14:00

Sven
Egenter
Sven Egenter heads the Clean Energy Wire as Editor in Chief and Executive Director.
Martha
Otwinowski
Martha managed the CLEW Journalism Network until February 2020. She developed network strategies and activities for energy reporters across the globe and helped launch the network platform in 2018. Prior to that, she was a correspondent at Index on Censorship, and also worked as policy researcher at a non-profit start-up.
Nabeelah
Shabbir
Nabeelah is a British-Pakistani journalist. She shared a British Journalism Award with team members for The Guardian's 2015 'Keep it in the Ground' climate change campaign. She has freelanced at the Financial Times and Twitter, and is a co-author of the Digital-born News Media in Europe reports at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, based at the University of Oxford.

Key take-aways from 1st Global Energy Transition Journalism Conference

Sven Egenter opening remarks at the Global Energy Transition Journalism conference. Photo credit: Julian Wettengel

"Don't annoy a journalist if you don't have a good story," said Claude Turmes, Member of the European Parliament from the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the opening panel of Clean Energy Wire CLEW's first Global Energy Transition Journalism conferene. We took this premise to heart and got 100 journalists, media professionals, foundation representatives and journalism researches together for a focussed discussion on how journalism on the defining global story - the energy transition - might look like. You can now read up on the conference highlights.

Energy transition reporting needs to be fact-based and cognizant of international dimensions. It must dare to take new approaches to storytelling, and refrain from over-simplification. So how do we achieve this? Are we at Clean Energy Wire alone in thinking there is huge untapped potential for collaborative work on this defining story of our times?

To find out, we sought out journalists and media professionals interested in forging paths to better cross-border journalism on the energy transition, and gathered in Bonn as the world watched international climate negotiations in the German city.

Very inspiring @arusbridger former Editor-in-Chief @guardian on changes in public power dimensions of state, people and press #GETJO17 pic.twitter.com/SAe2iXKIPQ

— Hanne May (@may_power_day) November 10, 2017

We are proud to look back on a conference packed with insights from leading experts in their fields, powerful ideas, and an impressive show of enthusiasm for high-quality journalism. You can find a summary of the conference highlights here.

The energy and commitment of all the attending journalists, network and foundation representatives, media experts, policymakers, business strategists and advocacy directors, gave us huge confidence in the potential for an international climate and energy transition journalism network, and reinforced our commitment to further steps aimed at developing such a network.

Throughout the two days, it was evident that everyone at the conference was deeply committed to the standards of quality journalism. In fact, in the current climate of diverse and at times unreliable sources of information, there was a sense that this is “all we’ve got” to gain – and keep – readers’ trust.

We also discovered a vast body of expertise on how journalists can work together effectively – and that we’ve only just scratched the surface in understanding the diverse challenges journalists face reporting on energy and climate change in different parts of the world. With so many journalists subject to intimidation and political pressure, it was heartening to see such strong commitment to bringing these vital stories to audiences across the globe.

Environmental journalists in China had "a lot more room" to talk about government, policies @samgeall of @chinadialogue #GETJO17 pic.twitter.com/q1pFVgOJYk

— Earth Journalism (@earthjournalism) November 10, 2017

It became clear to us that value of cross-border perspectives on the energy transition is huge, and challenges best tackled cooperatively.

Going forward, Clean Energy Wire will build on this momentum to develop a global energy transition and climate journalism network. We will continue to facilitate meetings of international journalists, speak to experts both in the media and in the climate and energy sectors, and exchange story ideas.