The Daily Mirror has become the only tabloid newspaper to join a global project aiming to the profile of climate crisis coverage.
The title said the issue is not the “sole responsibility” of broadsheets to highlight as it followed the Guardian and the i paper in signing up to the Covering Climate Now initiative.
The project calls for publishers to commit to step up their coverage of climate change next week ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September.
More than 250 news outlets have signed up to the Columbia Journalism Review-led project, with the Guardian on board as a partner.
Related
Magazine publisher Immediate Media is also taking part alongside international newsbrands with a UK presence including Bloomberg, Buzzfeed News, Getty Images, Huffpost, Vanity Fair, and Vice.
Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips said: “It’s mind-boggling to me that some people still regard climate crisis as an issue for just a certain class of people.
“If anything, climate crisis will – in our lifetime – disproportionately affect some of the UK’s most hard-up people.
“It is crucial that all of the press does the right thing in spreading this message and puts pressure on government to get its act together to protect British people.”
Daily Mirror environment editor Nada Farhoud has committed to covering the climate crisis prominently both online and in print between 15 and 23 September as part of the initiative.
The Reach-owned title said it plans to share its content with other media owners and is open to using stories sourced from other news outlets also signed up to the project to boost its coverage.
Farhoud said: “Fires are ravaging the Amazon, hundreds of species are going extinct every day and the Arctic is melting faster than scientists’ worst predictions.
“The effects of climate change cannot be told in just one story, neither is it the sole responsibility of broadsheets.
“Hopefully this will kickstart a conversation among other journalists on how we can all improve our coverage of the climate crisis.”
Farhoud is already behind a “more dedicated approach” to climate coverage at the Mirror, according to a spokesperson for the title.
Friday’s Mirror front page featured a report from US editor Christopher Bucktin about the destruction caused by the Amazon wildfires.
Farhoud herself has recently returned from a visit to Greenland to see the impact of the climate crisis first-hand.
Mark Hertsgaard, author and environment correspondent for US weekly magazine The Nation, has been coordinating the global collaboration.
He said: “Covering Climate Now is a journalistic collaboration of more than 240 news outlets around the world with a combined audience of more than 1bn people aimed at strengthening media coverage of the climate story, and we couldn’t be more pleased that the Daily Mirror is the first tabloid newspaper to join our effort.
“When the Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation co-founded this initiative in April, our theory was that a critical mass of journalists and news outlets that wanted to do more climate coverage already existed, and that by highlighting that critical mass, we could also grow it.
“That’s exactly what’s happened, and we look forward to the fine coverage these outlets will run in the lead up to the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23.”
Setting out its own plans for the week, the Guardian said yesterday it would be making a selection of its coverage coverage available for free to certain partners without dedicated environment desks.
The newspaper added that it has “long made climate coverage a top news priority, keeping the story on its front page daily”.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
