Call summary :

Globally, unsustainable consumption and production patterns are fueling the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. A "polycrisis" that the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned is humanity’s number one existential threat.

A series of devastating world events, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine, along with rising inflation and energy prices, have all compounded existing and urgent environmental and biodiversity challenges. But during times of crisis, longer-term climate and environmental issues take lower priority in political agendas. Resources are redirected and media attention has shifted.

At this crucial point in time, as journalists seek to inform people about the impacts of environmental degradation and the climate crisis, research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has observed that selective news avoidance, where people actively try to avoid news often, is widespread and that interest in news is falling, particularly among younger age groups.

This round of grants, awarded as part Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s Asia-Pacific project, aims to boost the quantity and quality of environmental coverage in the region and engage at-risk communities by informing them about environmental issues and amplifying their voices in the media. This project has received generous financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Project themes

In this round of media grants, we are seeking innovative ideas from journalist networks, media organizations, civil society organizations and academic institutions in Asia and the Pacific that would strengthen audience engagement and outreach of environmental reporting. We are interested in receiving applications for work that addresses the rise in climate and environmental news fatigue, and innovative ideas that promote better public engagement with environment and climate media.

We welcome projects that cover any environmental challenge that is salient to the region. Examples of themes include intensive food production, climate change, air and marine pollution, heavy metal contamination, antimicrobial resistance, pesticide poisoning and pollution, biodiversity loss, wildlife trafficking, natural resources management, and large-scale infrastructure development.

Examples of activities that can be supported include, but are not limited to:
- A media and communications campaign that highlights stories of climate resilience or other relevant themes.
- A media reporting project that explains and investigates the interdependence of the health and well-being of humans, animals, and their environments.
- Transboundary media reporting and content sharing among media/information outlets based in different localities or countries.
- Cross-sectoral collaborations and knowledge exchange between journalists, information providers and other key actors, such as researchers and governmental bodies.
- Partnership and network building for environmental reporting, such as the formation of an environmental journalists’ network or an investigative environmental reporting partnership.
- Innovative tools to support media investigations.
- Training opportunities and media workshops for journalists, citizen journalists or social media content producers.
- Institutional capacity building activities that build skills and knowledge on topics, such as but not limited to, financial reporting, monitoring and evaluation, gender inclusion, and in-person or virtual activities that support environmental reporting.


Objectives

Proposed activities should:
- Strengthen the capacity of journalists, media organizations, social media content producers to produce high-quality, evidence-based and engaging stories on the environmental impacts of human actions and viable solutions to mitigate and respond to these impacts.
- Increase high-quality content and media coverage on key environmental, public health and climate themes to focus public attention and trigger policy responses to these interconnected crises.
- Increase public attention to the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on women, the poor, youth, indigenous peoples, and other vulnerable groups and increase their access to high-quality, publicly available environmental information.
- Contribute to positive changes in government policies, businesses environmental standards or consumer habits for a more sustainable way of life.


Grant amount and logistics

This grant fund has US$45,000 available for awards this year, which would ide