Summer Conference Events

Learn how to leverage the law to obtain ‘green’ information from government departments, regulators and even some private companies. The Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) - the ‘Sister Act’ of FOIA legislation - is a simple and powerful tool that allows access to public-interest information about the environment.

Hands-on. This class will introduce participants to approaches to tracking and reporting on the opaque oil trade. The trainers will explain the value of commodity tracking through the presentation of some powerful stories that relied on the practice.

Disasters triggered by climate change are many years in the making, but when they reach critical points the effects can unfold fast. If journalists are to capture and show the impacts of such events on affected communities, they too must act fast.

We are already seeing the impacts of the climate crisis, and many are so wide-ranging and devastating that they are difficult to comprehend. Many journalists are taking the skills and techniques of data journalism and applying these to the disastrous ramifications of climate change.

Recent years have seen significant improvement in both recognition and rhetoric from those in power around the need for action to address the looming impacts of the climate crisis. However, in too many cases, positive words have served only to obscure inaction at best and continued harm at worst.

Luuk Sengers is a seasoned investigative journalist specialising in the impact of large corporations on the environment, public health, and the climate. In recent years he has found that the traditional way of business reporting is no longer sufficient: because of the decisive impact of many multinationals on the climate crisis, it has now literally become a matter of life and death.

This session, led by an expert in leveraging the techniques of data journalism to produce deforestation and climate change investigations, takes attendees through the practice and pitfalls of covering the environment.

Sometimes, the only way to get the story out is to go in undercover. These investigations can be the trickiest that a researcher will ever take on and come with a range of risks and potential pitfalls, but with the climate in crisis and on the brink of full collapse, and many vested interests keeping their deals well hidden, occasionally the means are justified.

Global trade in soy, beef, palm oil and other agricultural commodities is driving tropical deforestation. Governments, businesses and financial institutions have pledged to halt deforestation, but only with transparency in supply chains can these commitments be meaningfully assessed.

Data journalists from Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism will highlight several of the unit’s pioneering geo-journalism tools (#WildEye, #MineAlert, Rhino Court Cases and ClimaTracker) to demonstrate how journalists can incorporate environmental data into their work.