The Department of Journalism and Media Studies at OsloMet and The Norwegian Institute for Journalism are establishing a new, annual Nordic prize in climate and environmental journalism.
The purpose of the prize is to highlight the best of our climate and environmental journalism, and inspire investment in climate and environmental issues among Nordic journalists.
We have called the prize "Klimapress", and it will be awarded for the first time this year, in connection with the Klimapress (Climate Pressure) conference.
Nominations
We are now open for nominations.
All nominations for the Klimapress 2025 award must be sent to klimapress@ij.no by June 20th 2025.
More about the event and the prize
The climate crisis is putting pressure on nature, our societies – and on journalism. In the Nordic countries, editorial offices have upgraded their climate journalism in recent years. The nature crisis, various types of pollution, and other environmental problems also require more attention.
Conflicts between climate and nature have also become clearer – for example in increased opposition to wind power development.
Nevertheless, climate and environmental problems are being pushed more into the background of public debate. Other crises and threats dominate the Nordic agenda, even though many "know" that the climate crisis contributes to intensifying these other threats.
Forest fires in the USA, torrential rain in Spain, drought in the Sahel, floods in Norway - climate change takes lives and destroys assets worldwide, every day, and we know that finding solutions to limit the damage is urgent. Yet the climate crisis is not prioritized in most media outlets' channels.
And still, more brilliant climate journalism is being done than ever before. More journalists are acquiring knowledge and tools to cover the climate and nature crisis, finding new ways to investigate and report, creating journalism that informs, engages, and has consequences. The Klimapress prize hope to inspire more of this.
What can you nominate?
Both individual journalists and editorial offices or groups can be nominated, and the jury will consider individual stories, packages with multiple stories that illuminate the same theme, and larger initiatives as candidates for this year's prize.
The stories can be published in text, photo series, video, or audio format by small or large editorial offices. For long video and audio reports, a short version of maximum three minutes can advantageously be included with the nomination in addition to a link to the original version. The short version can be an existing trailer or a new clip that highlights the best aspects or thematic core of the story.
The nominated stories must have been published to a Nordic audience from June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025.
Criteria
- News, feature, and investigative stories that focus on climate and/or environment. They can have climate/environment as the main topic or highlight important environmental/climate aspects in stories that initially deal with other issues.
- The story should bring forth new issues, knowledge, or power relationships.
Journalism is often called the first draft of history, and nominations can well be justified in new ways, with criteria other than these two.
The jury
- Marie Sæhl, climate journalist from Informationen (Denmark)
- Salla Nazarenko, from the Union of Journalists (Finland)
- Ole Mathismoen, former environmental and climate journalist in Aftenposten (Norway)
- Irene Požar, editor of Veckorevyen (Sweden)
