‘Climate Reporters’, Lithuania's brand-new climate news agency, aims to tackle fatigue in climate reporting and bring the topic of climate change back to the forefront of editorial agendas. In a shining example of citizen journalism, Climate Reporters combine communication and climate activism to educate people about climate change and give Mother Earth a voice during the environmental crisis.

By Rūta Trainytė

The climate news agency ‘Climate Reporters’ started up this year in Lithuania. It is an initiative run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and an example of citizen journalism. The news agency aims to help journalists report on the various aspects of the environmental crisis. To that end, the agency’s team drafts texts and forwards them to editorial offices.

The agency’s work is carried out by a community of activists. The texts are written by journalists, public relations specialists, representatives of NGOs, activists and scientists – in short, people who care about what is happening and want social change. They also make up the board of ‘Climate Reporters’. The board ensures that the new initiative is trustworthy.

The ‘Climate Reporters’ are not new to the world of communication but have already gained considerable experience in public relations, in editing and in creating and maintaining web portals. Nor are we novices in climate issues. This is how the idea came about. We do what we do best and combine it with climate activism. We give Mother Earth a voice during this environmental crisis.

Of course, we are in contact with journalists. The dominant trend in editorial offices is to believe that climate news is not of interest to the public and does not generate clicks. They avoid publishing articles with headlines containing the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘climate crisis’. What does climate crisis denial mean? Is it a way to protect society from bad news and anxiety?

It might not be that bad. A vast amount of news floods editorial offices every day, which is physically difficult to process, even without producing climate-related news items. You also have to be familiar with the topic. This is where we come in. The next step that the ‘Climate Reporters’ are taking is to train journalists. We can see that journalists need to understand the issue to avoid spreading greenwashing.

Another idea is to teach certain groups about climate change in an attractive way. Above all, we want to reach out to young people, and we have realised that they respond well to humour. We are not sure yet what this will look like in the future, but we are already thinking in this direction.

The news agency has been operating for a good six months. We know from our own experience that we need patience. We persistently and purposefully knock on the doors of editorial offices with our news items. Our texts are already being published on major Lithuanian news portals, and we get invited onto radio shows.

To ensure that our editorial work is high-quality, it is very important that we receive considerable support from Lithuanian environmental organisations, that our organisations are members of international NGO networks, that our members participate in working groups at EU level and that they represent Lithuania in the EESC. This enables us to broaden our range of topics and stay up to date with current affairs.

Our connection with the EESC goes beyond the fact that one of the initiators of the project, Kęstutis Kupšys, is a member of the Committee. EESC members can share relevant experiences from their various countries to enrich the climate news published by ‘Climate Reporters’. In this regard, we recently spoke with EESC member from France Arnaud Schwartz on the fringes of the COP16 World Biodiversity Summit. The insights he shared with us directly from Cali led to a ‘Climate Reporters’ article. His thoughts were soon heard in the Lithuanian media. This model, whereby the expertise of EESC members is used to effectively communicate global news to local audiences, has proved its worth. We will therefore use it again in future.

Rūta Trainytė is the editor at the climate news agency ‘Climate Reporters’. The agency is part of the state-funded ŽALINK project. The project, which is run by the Consumer Alliance, the Development Cooperation Platform and the NGO ‘Circular Economy’, is funded by the Climate Change Programme of the Environmental Project Management Agency of the Republic of Lithuania’s Ministry of the Environment.