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 new activities will be a conference series, combined with training, a mentorship program, and guidance for the setting up of local networks.

How to get involved

If you want to connect to the climate network members, you can:

  • Join our Signal group (reach out to the project director). This is where you can get quick answers to your questions, get peer feedback, and find reporting partners in other countries.
  • Follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date of our activities

Other tools that the network members can benefit from:

  • Arena Climate Leaks (coming soon): We are able to receive, in a secure and private manner, leaks (information and documents) touching upon environmental wrongdoings provided by whistleblowers from different countries;
  • Secure collaborative space: Arena has developed a bundle of online collaborative tools catering to cross-border teams in need of secure online infrastructure to share information, documents and work remotely across borders. This service will only be available on request for specific groups.

If you have any further questions or comments, please reach out to:

Zeynep Sentek, Arena Climate Network director: zeynep@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 and will be updated as new work is published.:

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.