Climate Solutions Reporting Guide

The Climate Solutions Reporting Guide, produced by Covering Climate Now and Solutions Journalism Network, argues that while problem-focused reporting is necessary, newsrooms must broaden their coverage to include solutions to empower audiences and policymakers. It advocates for a rigorous approach that interrogates the effectiveness and limitations of proposed solutions rather than 'cheerleading'. The guide emphasizes equity and justice, noting that marginalized communities often possess effective climate action records despite contributing the least to the crisis. It organizes potential story ideas into five categories: politics and government, economics and business, technologies and practices, civil society, and culture. Key technical distinctions are provided between 'mitigation' (reducing emissions and drawing down existing gases) and 'adaptation' (increasing resilience to unavoidable impacts).

• Solutions journalism is defined as 'rigorous, evidence-based reporting' that aims to 'illuminate, investigate, and hold accountable' the solutions proposed by various stakeholders, including governments and businesses.
• The guide emphasizes that equity and justice must permeate all climate reporting, highlighting that Indigenous peoples manage lands containing 'an estimated 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity' and that protecting their rights is the 'most successful way to protect biodiversity'.
• In the realm of politics and government, the guide suggests scrutinizing how public funds are spent, citing the United States' Inflation Reduction Act as an example that could enable spending an 'estimated $369 billion'.
• The document warns journalists to distinguish between genuine corporate climate action and 'greenwashing', specifically noting that fossil fuel companies have shifted their messaging 'from denial to delay'.
• The guide identifies 'net zero' pledges and carbon offsets as areas requiring scrutiny, as these approaches can be 'abused and worsen environmental injustice'.
• Technological solutions are divided into mitigation, which involves 'reducing the amount of heat-trapping emissions' and 'drawing down' existing gases, and adaptation, which focuses on actions that 'increase resilience to climate impacts that can no longer be avoided'.
• Regarding civil society, the guide argues that covering activism is not a form of bias and that journalists should treat activists as 'newsmakers', evaluating the 'theory of change' behind their actions.

APA

CCNow (2023). Climate Solutions Reporting Guide. Covering Climate Now. https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/climate-solutions-reporting-guide/

Chicago

CCNow. Climate Solutions Reporting Guide. Covering Climate Now, 2023. https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/climate-solutions-reporting-guide/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=CCNow |title=Climate Solutions Reporting Guide |publisher=Covering Climate Now |date=9 January 2023 |url=https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/climate-solutions-reporting-guide/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ccnow2023climate, author = {CCNow}, title = {{Climate Solutions Reporting Guide}}, institution = {Covering Climate Now}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://coveringclimatenow.org/resource/climate-solutions-reporting-guide/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }