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The statement argues that journalism must treat the climate crisis as an emergency to reflect scientific consensus and encourage immediate action to preserve a livable planet, suggesting the media's response to the Covid-19 pandemic as a model for reporting.

The author urges journalists to ensure climate change remains a central part of the coverage for President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address. While acknowledging Biden's achievements—such as rejoining the Paris Agreement and signing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill—the text highlights contradictions, including the continued approval of oil and gas permits and the failure of the Build Back Better bill. The author contends that the press should challenge overly optimistic narratives and hold both the administration and political obstructionists accountable, noting that the West's reliance on fossil fuels complicates the response to the crisis in Ukraine.

The document argues that climate change is a scientific imperative that should be central to all levels of political reporting, regardless of party affiliation. It encourages journalists to hold candidates accountable for their climate records, explore the implications of the Green New Deal and similar global investment programs, and humanize the crisis by focusing on local impacts and environmental justice. Additionally, it highlights the influence of youth activists and the importance of tracking campaign financing from fossil fuel interests to reveal a candidate's true environmental allegiances.

The 2022 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards toolkit provides partners with hashtags, suggested copy, and graphics to build awareness for awards honoring journalists who report on the climate emergency across various beats. Finalists were scheduled for announcement on April 20, 2022, during Earth Week.

The document catalogues endorsements of the term 'climate emergency' across different sectors. It notes that nearly 14,000 scientists from 156 countries have signed a warning stating 'planet Earth is facing a climate emergency'. In the media, The Guardian updated its style guide to recommend terms like 'climate emergency, crisis or breakdown', and Noticias Telemundo adopted 'climate emergency' over 'climate change' in 2019. Politically, 23 national governments, including Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and the European Union, have declared a climate emergency, alongside 2,060 towns, cities, and counties globally. Additionally, the UN Secretary General and Pope Francis have called for emergency declarations, and a 2021 poll indicated that two-thirds of the global population views climate change as a 'global emergency'.

The document explains that the 1.5-degree-C target, established under the 2015 Paris Agreement, is a critical threshold to limit cataclysmic climate impacts. While the Earth has already warmed by 1.2 degrees C since the Industrial Revolution, reaching the 1.5-degree-C limit requires cutting global carbon emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2050. This necessitates a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels—specifically leaving 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves in the ground—and ending deforestation. The guide warns that the world has already experienced temporary breaches of this threshold and faces a 66% chance of doing so for at least one year between now and 2027. It advises journalists to communicate both the current impacts of 1.2 degrees C and the available solutions to avoid public paralysis while emphasizing that every fraction of a degree of warming increases global risk.

The document encourages local newsrooms to cover COP26 by framing the international summit through the lens of local leadership, national legislation like the US 'Build Back Better' bill, and the role of subnational climate coalitions.

The author argues that climate reporting must include climate justice to accurately reflect how the climate emergency is tied to existing social and racial inequities. The guide advises reporters to move beyond portraying marginalized communities as victims, to diversify expert sources, and to invest significant time in building trust with sources to avoid misrepresentation. It emphasizes that the systems driving climate change—such as extractive industries and discriminatory housing—are the same systems that create race and class divides.

The authors argue that global media coverage of climate change is insufficient and fails to convey the scale of the crisis. They call for newsrooms to prioritize climate stories, use plain language to describe the threat, and treat the situation with the same urgency as the Covid-19 pandemic. The text highlights that while some outlets fear the term 'climate emergency' suggests activism, the scientific consensus demands such framing to drive the political will necessary for decarbonization.

On Earth Day 2021, Covering Climate Now highlights President Joe Biden's pledge to cut US carbon pollution by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and the ongoing efforts of activists like Greta Thunberg to end fossil fuel subsidies. The statement calls on journalists to scrutinize government claims against scientific necessity and to treat climate change as an emergency across all news beats.

The document introduces a resource for journalists to track the Biden administration's climate team, noting that President Biden has committed to a $1.7 trillion climate plan and has integrated climate expertise across White House positions and new agencies to address climate change as an "existential threat."

The guide advises journalists to frame climate change as a factor that makes extreme weather worse rather than a sole cause. It provides key data on global warming, noting a 2 degree Fahrenheit increase since pre-industrial times and the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The text details how climate change intensifies heat waves, floods, and hurricanes—noting that hurricanes now lose only 50% of their strength in the first 24 hours after landfall compared to 75% fifty years ago. It also highlights risks to biodiversity, the role of agriculture in producing a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the scientific necessity of eliminating new carbon emissions by 2050.

The document argues that climate change is a justice issue, as systemic inequities cause people of color, indigenous people, and the poor to bear the brunt of climate disasters while being excluded from solution discussions. It urges journalists to move beyond science-focused reporting to cover climate-driven displacement, the disproportionate impact of pollution on poor communities, and the role of disadvantaged groups as climate innovators. The guide suggests focusing on how green spending and resilience projects are distributed and highlighting the public health impacts of corporate pollution to engage new audiences.

The document argues that the massive scale of Covid-19 recovery spending will determine whether the global economy locks in fossil fuel infrastructure or transitions to a zero-carbon economy. It encourages reporters to frame 'green stimulus' through the lens of the Green New Deal, climate justice, and historical comparisons to the 2008 financial crisis and the 1930s Great Depression. The guide highlights that green investments in wind, solar, and energy efficiency create more jobs per million dollars spent than conventional oil and gas, and urges local coverage of mass transit, building renovations, and the influence of utilities and regulatory bodies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The document advises journalists to treat COP26 with urgency, framing coverage around the 1.5 C temperature goal, climate justice, and the political barriers to solutions. It emphasizes the need for advance coverage and the localization of global climate impacts to make the summit relevant to diverse audiences.

The document details a series of record-breaking climate events in 2020, including an unprecedented number of billion-dollar disasters in the US, extreme wildfires in California and Colorado, and devastating tropical cyclones in the Philippines and the Bay of Bengal. It highlights that 2020 was on pace to be the second-hottest year on record and notes the acceleration of Arctic sea ice retreat. Experts cited in the text emphasize that these events are driven by human-caused climate change and call for urgent climate action and funding for affected poor populations.

The guide argues that comprehensive climate reporting must link the crisis to systemic inequities, as people of color, indigenous people, and the poor typically bear the brunt of climate disasters and pollution. It highlights climate change as a "threat multiplier" that exacerbates poverty, health, and housing inequities, noting that climate-related displacement affected some 30 million people in 2019 and could reach 1 billion by 2050. The document encourages reporters to investigate the distribution of green investments, the disparity in government aid following extreme weather, and the role of marginalized community leaders in climate innovation.

The authors contend that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a 'test run' for the climate crisis, demonstrating the danger of ignoring science and the importance of independent, fact-based journalism. They advocate for a reporting approach that resists government pressure, highlights credible remedies, and emphasizes scientific rigor. To implement this, the Covering Climate Now collaboration, which includes over 400 news outlets, launched a coordinated week of coverage for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day focusing on broad climate solutions, including technical fixes, policy reforms like carbon pricing, and civic actions.

The author contends that the media's ability to define reality is evident in its exhaustive coverage of COVID-19, contrasting this with the historically lower priority given to the climate crisis. The text argues that the perceived immediacy of the pandemic versus the perceived abstraction of climate change is a faulty distinction, as climate-related disasters are already impacting millions. It suggests that newsrooms should apply the same 'all-hands-on-deck' approach to climate reporting, focusing on 'flattening the curve' of greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the document highlights how overlapping crises—such as floods in the American Midwest occurring alongside the pandemic—and the shared origins of climate and COVID-19 misinformation further underscore the need for urgent, high-profile climate journalism.

In remarks delivered at the Covering Climate Now conference, Bill Moyers critiques the failure of major US news networks to adequately cover global warming and calls for a new era of courageous, connected reporting. He highlights a historical missed opportunity in 1965 when the US government first officially recognized the threat of CO2, and urges current journalists to act as a moral authority to shift public opinion and drive the 'acceptance of responsibility' needed to implement available climate solutions.