Pulitzer Center Update August 15, 2025
Pulitzer Center at Abraji: A Day Dedicated to Climate Journalism
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The 20th Congress of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) brought together around 2,000 participants in São Paulo, Brazil, from July 10-13, 2025. This event, which has become one of the most important journalism events in Latin America, dedicated a large part of its program to journalistic coverage of climate change. The topic is particularly important for journalists and media outlets around the world this year, as Brazil hosts the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP30).
The track on Climate and COP30 was supported by the Pulitzer Center in partnership with the Covering Climate Now initiative and featured roundtables, panels, and workshops. Continuing the events we have been organizing since last year, which bring together media organizations and civil society actors, at Abraji we explored the question of how to ensure rigorous journalistic practices and collaborations while promoting audience engagement with the climate agenda.
On July 12, our special track on environmental journalism began with a conversation with one of the most recognized communicators on the climate emergency, Bill McKibben. An American journalist with several best-selling books on the subject and a prestigious author for his articles in The New Yorker magazine, he is one of the most active voices on the role of communicators in engaging society in the fight against global warming.
In conversation with Brazilian journalist Claudio Angelo and co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now, Mark Hettengard, McKibben emphasized the importance of journalism that is emphatic in alerting audiences to the need to adapt to a world with frequent extreme weather events. He also reminded the audience about his upcoming book Here Comes the Sun.
After the opening plenary, we had two panels focusing on coverage of COP30. The first, moderated by Covering Climate Now co-founder Kyle Pope, brought together three names from the international press who are fully dedicated to environmental issues: Bob Magill, climate correspondent for Bloomberg; Jonathan Watts, global environment editor for The Guardian and co-founder of Sumauma; and Lorena Arroyo, editor of El País' Planeta Futuro section.
After the roundtable led by international press professionals, there was a panel discussion, this time moderated by reporter Daniel Camargos, on the perspective of Brazilian journalists at COP30. Ana Carolina Amaral, Karla Mendes, Catarina Barbosa, and Daniel Nardin participated in the panel.
In these sessions focused on COP, the emphasis was on the need for collaboration between international and local media, especially those based in cities and states in the Brazilian Amazon.
To close the day, we held one of the main activities of the day: an interactive session between Pulitzer Center Fellows and the public. The format consisted of conversation islands led by journalists and their investigative projects on environmental and climate issues. About 50 people were present and participated in discussions with journalists Bruna Bronoski, Milagros Salazar, Rogério Assis, Tayguara Ribeiro, and Thiago Medaglia.
As part of the Pulitzer Center's journey to COP30, new dialogue activities, both online and in-person, will be held in September and October. During COP, our team will be present promoting debates with local partners, as well as cultural events such as documentary screenings and photography exhibitions. Some activities are open for registration:
- “How To Report on the Green Transition and Critical Minerals” - August 19
- “How To OSINT the Ocean” - September 9
- “How Journalists Can Use Scraping Tools for Environmental Stories” - October 14
