The Arena Climate Network

About the network

The Arena Climate Network is an open-access network by and for journalists. It is for those who want to focus on all aspects of the climate crisis and who want to do in-depth, investigative work. Our network serves a community devoted to exposing financial greed, corruption, and government malaise that fuel the climate crisis.

We offer journalists a hub for collaboration, discussion and learning from each other. Among our many activities is our annual Climate Arena Conference, combined with training, a mentorship program, and guidance for the setting up of local networks.

How to get involved

Annual Climate Arena conference

Arena’s hands-on, working conference on European climate reporting. Where journalists and climate scientists, share how award-winning investigations were done, get the datasets, understand the methods, and find their next project to collaborate on — across borders and disciplines.

Find more information on our conference website and come meet colleagues and climate experts from across Europe.

Become part of our Climate Arena fellowship

At Climate Arena, we have a fellowship opportunity for those who have a cross-border and investigative climate story idea and are eager to work in a team setting.

We want to bring together individuals and teams who want to work across borders on a climate related story and could need help from Arena for Journalism in Europe.

Connect to climate journalists across Europe:

• Join our Signal group: This is where you can get quick answers to your questions, get peer feedback, and find reporting partners in other countries.
• Sign up to our Climate Arena newsletter to stay up-to-date with Climate Arena activities and receive the latest news about our annual Climate Arena conference and fellowships.
• Follow us on Twitter to stay in touch and learn about our latest activities.

Climate Arena Investigations

• Under the Surface – the hidden crisis in Europe’s groundwater

In 2024, the Under the Surface project, initiated and coordinated by Arena for Journalism in Europe and Datadista, delved into official data from European countries to reveal, for the first time, the extent of the danger we face.

Over five months, altogether, 14 journalists from seven countries analysed the most up-to-date EU figures and created an interactive map of Europe’s aquifers.

• The Forever Pollution Project

In early 2023, the Forever Pollution Project showed that nearly 23,000 sites all over Europe are contaminated by the “forever chemicals” PFAS. This unique collaborative cross-border and cross-field investigation by 16 European newsrooms revealed an additional 21,500 presumptive contamination sites due to current or past industrial activity. PFAS contamination spreads all over Europe.

Arena for Journalism in Europe scaled up the cross-border collaboration from five to twelve countries and over 25 journalists through the Climate Arena’s sister network, the Food & Water network, and helped with the coordination and infrastructure of the project. Read more about the Forever Pollution Project and our work.

• Troubled Waters

Published in 2022, the Troubled Waters investigation by Jelena Prtoric (Arena for Journalism in Europe) in collaboration with Luisa Izuzquiza (FragDenStaat) unveiled the extend to which the EU’s agricultural policies – or rather the lack of their implementation – contribute to the pollution of European waters.

The research was produced as a part of the 2022 Bertha Challenge fellowship focusing on water. The Bertha Challenge provides the opportunity for activists and investigative journalists to spend one year focussing on one pressing social justice issue.

Arena Activities for Network Members

• Collaborative Desk: The secure online environment for your cross-border collaboration and team. Arena has developed a secure online infrastructure based on open-source software that you and your colleagues can use to store and share research material, collaborate online and manage your project across borders.
• Arena Academy: Where we gather and share knowledge and experience in the field of collaborative, investigative, data and entrepreneurial journalism. Some of our activities are:  coach and mentor cross-border teams, advise and coordinate journalism schools wishing to integrate collaboration in their education, teach mid-career journalists collaborative methods and advise on cross-border investigative facilitation

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us under:  climate@journalismarena.eu

History of the network

The Climate Network was created following the 2020 Dataharvest conference in order to facilitate information flows between journalists covering climate at the local, national and EU level and to tell impactful stories.

The Dataharvest conference in 2021 featured a “Fridays for Climate” program: ten sessions focusing on climate issues spread over a period of three weeks. We looked into investigative methodologies behind a selection of recent European investigations which focused on different aspects of climate change, energy efficiency or environmental wrongdoing. During this process, Dataharvest participants were guided and mentored by two data trainers and an OSINT trainer. During allocated “office hours”, participants would get one-on-one time with them to delve into the climate data and to hone their OSINT skills.

Arena Climate Network: Cross-border investigations

In 2021, we also organised a “Learning by doing” hands-on training in data and investigative methodology.  A small group of journalists, with a desire to work a climate topic of their choice were given the opportunity to develop investigative and data skills in a cross-border setting.

The participants worked in small cross-border groups with the support of a data trainer and a program coordinator. They also received training on online safety and security in the context of cross-border investigations and could book a personalised one-on-one consultation with an expert in the field of their research or an OSINT expert.

At the end of the program, the groups published their investigations and in-depth analysis in various European media . A few examples can be found here:

• • Data exclusive: The ‘junk’ carbon offsets revived by the Glasgow Pact  (Climate Home News)
  • Dismay over EU plans to keep paying to promote meat (EUobserver)
  • Why is energy poverty rising  among low-income households in the EU (Euronews)
  • Albania is at the mercy of the weather: the central and local institutions are unprepared for floods  (Vizion)

The Arena Climate Network also functions as a meeting space, where its members can connect and share expertise and information in order to better collaborate across the borders.