Meet our COP29 reporting fellows covering the green workforce

Our first cohort meeting

How will countries across the globe put together the workforce needed for the green transition? This question is at the heart of the "COP29 Cross-Border Energy Transition Reporting Fellowship" co-organised by Clean Energy Wire and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security. More than 160 applicants sent us their pitches from around the world and we had the difficult task of selecting just five journalists to join the cohort. In this blog post, we proudly introduce the colleagues who will travel with us to Baku to cover one of the biggest climate stories of our time.

As climate impacts increase and governments and companies across the globe ramp up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, journalists have the important task of tracking and reporting on the implementation of energy transition plans. The labour market is an area where change is happening at a rapid pace: job openings requiring green skills are growing almost twice as fast as the number of workers with the skills required to fill them.

To cover this story, participants of the COP29 Cross Border Energy Transition Reporting Fellowship will come together before, during and after COP29 as a cross-border newsroom focusing on the green workforce. Out of 160+ applicants CLEW and the Stanley Center selected five outstanding journalists to join the fellowship and we are excited to introduce them.

Meet our fellows

Tais Gadea Lara is a climate journalist from Argentina. She has been covering the climate negotiations since 2014. Recently, she was a Climate Explorer at the Constructive Institute (Denmark). She writes the newsletter Planeta, collaborates in different media, such as Devex, Climática-La Marea, Canal de la Ciudad, and trains people on better climate reporting.

Ayoola Kassim is Channels Television's Head of Programmes and Coordinating Producer in Nigeria. She is also the Environment Correspondent, Anchor and Producer of the award-winning environment and development Programme- Earthfile on the station. She began her career as a production assistant at Channels in 1999, earning major Television awards and nominations including International Emmy Award, Nigeria Media Merit Awards (Winner, Best TV Reporter and Best TV Producer).

Yuhan Niu is a bilingual journalist currently working with Dialogue Earth. With five years of reporting experience, she covers topics such as pollution, ocean conservation, and sustainable business practices. Yuhan specialises in Chinese climate and environmental policy, as well as China’s role in the global energy transition.

Michael Phillis is a reporter with The Associated Press. He covers a broad range of environmental stories with a focus on water. He is based in St. Louis in the United States and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Roli Srivastava is a Mumbai-based journalist and founder of The Migration Story. She reports on climate change, just transition, gender and migration, focusing mainly on India’s marginalised communities. She has worked with the Thomson Reuters Foundation and major Indian dailies including The Hindu and The Times of India.

The cohort will participate in virtual meetings and trainings in the six weeks prior to COP29 and then travel to Baku, Azerbaijan to report from November 14-24, with additional reporting happening in their home countries and regions. While in Baku, the fellowship organisers will facilitate collaboration and connection across the newsroom and create opportunities for source development, interviews, information-gathering, and networking with other journalists and COP delegates.

If you are an editor interested in republishing some of the cohort’s stories, get in touch with Milou Dirkx via milou.dirkx@cleanenergywire.org.