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Climate Investigations Course: All Modules

A comprehensive programme of training, providing all the expertise, skills and tools required to conduct thorough investigative research into the climate crisis. Book here for a 20% discount on all modules.

There is an urgent need for greater public understanding of the looming climate crisis, and journalism has an integral role to play in this.

However, while environmental and climate reporting is crucial, there is an equally critical need for investigative journalism around these topics. While the public needs to know what is happening to our planet, they also need to understand why it is happening.

Why, despite decades of warnings and research into mitigation and solutions, is the situation worsening?

Where are promises and commitments being broken?

What is hindering the process of building new systems to avert the worst of the coming crisis?

And who, ultimately, is profiting from this situation?

Over the past three years, through developing and delivering the Open Climate Reporting Initiative, the Centre for Investigative Journalism has built a comprehensive curriculum to provide all the skills required to dig into the people, organisations, governments and companies that will uncover answers to these questions for you and your audience. Our experience of providing training in more than 50 countries across the Global South, means we have been able to ensure that both the content and the training team for this new curriculum has a broad international perspective.

The programme brings together a truly stellar line-up of expert trainers from a wide range of disciplines and specialisms, to empower participants with access to everything they need to find, pursue and publish impactful climate investigations of their own. The course is deliberately structured to ensure participants come away with new projects and stories that they have already begun to apply their new skillsets to, and that are ready for follow-up and pitching.

Through curating 23 hours of hands-on online teaching, we have built something unique – there is no equivalent at this level of expertise that is so accessible or affordable in terms of either fees or time commitment, nor as rigidly focused on practical investigative skills.

The Climate Investigations Course represents an ambitious, in-depth programme of work, bringing together a wealth of rigorous, industry-leading training – a proportionate, urgent response to the scale of the crisis we currently face.

Signing up here gives access to the full course with a 20% discount applied to the fees. 

This covers:

If you have a specific interest in only one or two of the modules, you can book them individually, through the links above.

Complete all four modules and earn a CIJ Climate Investigations Certificate for your CV.

Technical Requirements

This course will need you to have the following software/apps/tools on your computer:

  • Zoom app
  • Camera and audio

This course will be hosted on Zoom. To find out more about how we use Zoom, please check out our Zoom InfoSec page.

Some modules have more specific technical requirements:

Data Driven Climate Investigations
MS Excel 2016 or newer (If do not have access to Excel, there is a free trial version available). We encourage the use of MS Excel (that is, the desktop “app”: the online version of Office 365 lacks some of the features you will need). If necessary, you can use Google Sheets, which has slightly different menus and instructions – these are documented in the online materials, but the trainer doesn’t always have the opportunity to demonstrate both systems in the session: he will certainly try, but you may find you need to do some extra work outside the session to catch up.

ECOSINT
Introduction to ECOSINT
Recommended resources to set up or install ahead of the session:

  • X (formerly Twitter) Account
  • Instagram Account
  • Linkedin Account
  • Invid Chrome Browser extension – https://www.invid-project.eu/tools-and-services/invid-verification-plugin/
  • Register with Open Screening https://resources.linkurious.com/openscreening

Satellite Imagery and Mapping
Recommended resources to set up or install ahead of the session:

  • Sentinel Hub EO Browser  (free, web-based & sign in optional) – https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browser/
  • NASA FIRMS Active Fire Data (free, web-based & sign in not required) – https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/active_fire/
  • Google Spreadsheet download link for Active Fire Data India (May 1-31, 2024). Participants will follow the same process to access data – https://t.ly/DpFSV
  • Global Forest Watch (free, web-based & sign in optional) – https://www.globalforestwatch.org/
  • Google Earth Pro (free & desktop version that requires installation on the PC) – https://www.google.com/earth/about/versions/
  • Google Sheets (free, web-based and requires Gmail sign-in) – https://sheets.new/
  • Google Earth Engine (free, web-based & sign in not required) – https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/
  • Jimpl (free, web-based & sign in not required) – https://jimpl.com/

Course Structure

Exercises and additional resources will be provided to supplement the training between sessions.

Important

Our training is not recorded: if you miss a session, it is lost – you cannot watch a recording of it, nor will you be allowed to attend that session at a later date.

All session timings listed are UK timezone.

Climate Investigation Fundamentals

27 March 2025 – Introduction to Climate Science and International Governance - Lina Yassin

09:00–11:30
This first session will begin by providing a grounding on the scientific knowledge around climate change, ensuring that you are able to approach the subject from an informed starting point. From there it will also set out the current state of policy structures and intergovernmental debate, and give practical tips and advice for preparations and best practice for reporting on high-level climate negotiation events such as COP, whether in attendance or remotely.

28 March 2025 – Introduction to Climate Reporting and Investigations - Akintunde Babatunde

09:00–11:30
The second module will give you the conceptual tools to improve the output of your climate investigations and ensure important impactful reporting. It will cover best practice elements of media framing of the climate crisis and introduce key concepts such as climate finance, greenwashing and common myths and misconceptions. The module will examine the differences and crossover between environmental reporting and climate investigations and prepare you to critically analyse reports and briefings. In addition, it will introduce a solutions journalism approach to climate investigations, helping you write about the climate crisis with contextual honesty, while avoiding leaving your audience feeling hopeless and disempowered.

Data-Driven Climate Investigations

This module is a stripped down version of our Data-Driven Investigations course, specifically tailored for climate change investigations. Participants will be expected to know their way around Excel/Google Sheets, and more specifically its PivotTable tool. If you are completely new to working with data then we strongly recommend that you attend our Finding Stories with Data Course before attending this module.

14 April 2025 – Planning and plotting your data investigation - Leila Haddou and Jonathan Stoneman

10:00–11:30
In any data project, especially those involving complex, multi-faceted subjects such as climate change, it’s crucial to get the planning right from the very start. This first session looks at how to identify the leads that will point you in the right direction and explores the concept of the Story Memo - a structured action plan that will ensure your project starts out with clear objectives, maintains momentum and focus, and keeps your investigative hypothesis concise and continually refined.

15 April 2025 – Interviewing data - - Leila Haddou and Jonathan Stoneman

10:00–11:30
Once your project is clearly defined and you have a plan, it’s time to conduct your initial interviews. Data can be an incredibly fruitful interviewee, so long as you know how to ask it the right questions and quickly interpret the answers it provides. This session will demonstrate the primary functions and tools you need to ask questions of a dataset, before giving you a hands-on exercise with real climate-focused data to begin putting these methods into action. In groups, you’ll be asked to do some initial analysis of a dataset and identify some story angles to follow up on.

16 April 2025 – Sourcing/mapping the territory - Leila Haddou and Jonathan Stoneman

10:00–11:30
In the next session, we bring the investigative hypothesis and data analysis together to map the territory of a project. This is a systematic method for identifying what you know to have happened, and extrapolating from that everything else that must have occurred. From this you can start to build a list of all the actors involved and identify which of those must hold relevant data and how you can go about finding and accessing it. The concepts will be worked through as a group on an example of a climate investigation. Participants will then apply this method to their own project ideas.

17 April 2025 – Bulletproofing and putting it all together - Leila Haddou and Jonathan Stoneman

10:00–11:30
Climate is a contentious subject, and numbers and statistics can easily be misused whether intentionally or not. When conducting climate investigations, it’s essential to be transparent, honest and diligent, as any mistakes or lack of clarity can and will be picked apart, undermining your reporting and potentially leading to legal problems. The bulletproofing exercises look at how to keep your workings organised, ensure the data you are working with is clean and consistent, and identify common pitfalls and misuse of data-driven work, helping you to avoid these and produce accessible, relatable stories. This session will also look at enhancing the output of your data-driven investigation, and where to take your next steps, from merging datasets to coding and automation. The module ends with a chance to further refine individual project and story ideas and give and receive peer feedback on the results.

Investigating Climate Finance

12 May 2025 – Investigating Corporations - Nimra Shahid

15:00–16:30
The opening session will take participants through the steps required to pursue climate investigations with corporations as the focus. It will set out several methods for finding stories in data, reports and from specific sources. It will then use case studies to explain the major techniques for digging into these leads, through analysing financial documents, sustainability reports, and using OSINT tools to map elements of your investigation. Exercises will be provided to ensure participants understand how to access and understand information from free sources such as stock exchange terminals, SEC filings and EDGAR. Finally, it will give tips on bringing your investigation to publication, including insights into drafting an organised right of reply process.

13 May 2025 – Investigating Governments - Scilla Alecci

15:00–16:30
This session will shift the focus to investigating governments. The session covers three major angles: lack of regulation; lack of enforcement; and broken promises. Across these areas, the session will identify a range of methods to uncover and evidence corruption in government decisions and actions. Participants will access guidance on finding stories and sources as well as learn how to identify red flags by critically analysing documents and legislation for vested interests, influence and misconduct. Alongside this the session will provide advice on coping with a lack of access or data in contexts where transparency is sparse and for ensuring that your stories include the human impacts and resonate with your audience.

14 May 2025 – Investigating the Offsetting Industry - Leigh Baldwin and Luke Barratt

15:00–16:30
One of the most lauded solutions to the climate crisis of recent times, carbon offsetting, has now been shown to be, in reality, one of the most flawed. The voluntary carbon offset market in particular is open to speculation and fraud on a huge scale, making profits for companies involved, providing PR copy for greenwashing to multinational corporations, but doing little if anything to mitigate the climate crisis. Investigative journalism has been an essential element in uncovering this, and despite the revelations there is still an urgent need for independent journalists to act as watchdogs over the industry. The module will take participants through the processes involved in several recent investigations into contentious carbon offsetting projects and provide insight into navigating the data on others.

15 May 2025 – Investigating the Enablers - Amy Westervelt

15:00–16:30
Sitting alongside the corporate and governmental actors who are having detrimental impacts on climate change mitigation and the environment more generally, is an entire ecosystem of enablers. This includes lobbying firms and PR consultancies, but also research institutions and academic researchers susceptible to influence, and co-opted campaign groups and opaquely funded ‘grassroots’ movements. This module will provide guidance on identifying the different elements of this ecosystem and uncovering the influence they have on public debate and policy decisions.

ECOSINT: Environmental and Climate OSINT

3 June 2025 – Introduction to ECOSINT - Guy Porter

10:00–11:30
The first module will deliver an overview of the wide range of open-source tools and methods that can be employed to start or develop your climate investigations. It will cover advanced search and a range of tools for sifting through large amounts of information from online repositories or social media platforms to uncover connections and details. The content will also provide next steps, where to go for inspiration and further resources.

4 June 2025 – Satellite Imagery and Mapping - Arun Karki

10:00–11:30
Participants in this module will learn how to access satellite images and geospatial data and use tools to analyse this to monitor environmental changes and visualise those changes over time. Alongside land use change and extractive industry impacts, the content will help to develop participants' skills in analysing, comparing and investigating satellite imagery to understand climate-related events. It will set out the different platforms providing satellite imagery, and assess the different pros and cons of each, including the affordability and levels of detail available. Participants will gain familiarity with integrating multimedia with satellite and remote sensing data to enhance investigative reporting and visual storytelling.

5 June 2025 – Fighting Climate Dis- and Misinformation - Aditi Tandon

10:00–11:30
Misinformation and disinformation on climate change are growing and are one of the major obstacles inhibiting or delaying progress in tackling the issue. The objective of this session is to enhance the capacity of participants to counter misleading information around climate change. It provides the means to identify climate mis/disinformation and the techniques being used to distract action on climate change. It also goes through tools from image and footage verification to document analysis and corroboration. Through exercises, participants will use these methods to analyse climate mis/disinformation.

6 June 2025 – Tracking the Oil Trade - Sam Leon

10:00–11:30
This module focuses in on one specific area but has relevance for investigating many extractive industries. Through learning techniques to understand and trace oil through the supply chain, participants will gain an understanding of approaches for identifying upstream projects where resources are extracted and how to trace their transportation. The module utilises examples of high-impact investigations in the international press concerning sanctions evasion and the procurement of fuels in war, and shows participants methods for tracking seaborn shipments of oil on tankers — the most popular method for transportation of crude. It will also demonstrate how to investigate international trade dynamics in fossil fuels.

Trainer Biographies:

Lina Yassin

Lina Yassin is a Sudanese climate journalism and development consultant, with experience working on climate change communications and journalism projects across the MENA region. She worked for 5 years as the Operations Manager at Climate Tracker where she implemented a series of journalism fellowships and training on climate change and climate policy across different countries.

Akintunde Babatunde

Akintunde Babatunde is a Programme Manager with extensive experience in international development, public policy, civic technology, climate change, and media innovation. He is the Director of Programs at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and the OCRI regional coordinator for Anglophone Africa.

Leila Haddou

Leila Haddou is an investigative and data journalist. She has previously worked for BBC Panorama, The Times and Sunday Times, the FT and the Guardian. She has an avid interest in how technology can aid investigative reporting.

Jonathan Stoneman

Jonathan Stoneman is a freelance trainer specialising in data journalism. He has been working with data since 2010. Before that he worked at the BBC – as a reporter, producer, editor of output in Macedonian and Croatian, and finally as head of training at BBC World Service.

Nimra Shahid

Nimra Shahid is an award-winning freelance journalist. Her recent work has focused on climate change, greenwashing and how money flows into the fossil fuel industry. She has worked with Bloomberg, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Global Witness and the Guardian.

Scilla Alecci

Scilla Alecci is an investigative reporter and video journalist for ICIJ. She is also the partnership coordinator for Asia and Europe. A native of Italy, before joining ICIJ, Scilla was based in Tokyo where she worked for Bloomberg News and other news organisations.

Amy Westervelt

Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative climate journalist. She is the founder of the podcast network Critical Frequency and of the multimedia climate reporting project Drilled, which includes a popular podcast by the same name as well as multiple cross-border investigations in collaboration with a wide range of print media partners.

Leigh Baldwin

Leigh Baldwin is the editor of the non-profit investigative journalism organisation SourceMaterial. He was previously a corruption investigator for Global Witness and a reporter for Bloomberg News.

Luke Barratt

Luke Barratt is an investigative reporter at SourceMaterial. He joined in 2020 from Unearthed, where he published investigations on climate change and the environment.

Guy Porter

Guy Porter has a background in digital investigation, data analysis and research for campaign organisations Global Witness, Avaaz and Purpose, and training and development for the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and Goldsmiths, University of London.

Arun Karki

Arun Karki is a Nepal-based leading data journalist, trainer and the founder of the Center for Data Journalism Nepal (CDJN). Since 2020, he has spearheaded various data-driven reporting projects, including COVID-19 data reporting and climate investigations, employing open-source intelligence.

Aditi Tandon

Aditi Tandon is a Senior Production Editor at Mongabay India, an environment and conservation news portal. She has worked for over two decades in journalism and communications.

Sam Leon

Sam Leon is co-founder of Data Desk, an investigative consultancy focused on climate and the commodities industry. He previously worked at Global Witness where he ran their digital investigations unit.
  • Climate Investigation Fundamentals
  • 27 March 2025 09.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 28 March 2025 09.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • Data-Driven Climate Investigations
  • 14 April 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 15 April 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 16 April 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 17 April 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • Investigating Climate Finance
  • 12 May 2025 15.00–16.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 13 May 2025 15.00–16.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 14 May 2025 15.00–16.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 15 May 2025 15.00–16.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • ECOSINT: Environmental and Climate OSINT
  • 3 June 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 4 June 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 5 June 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
  • 6 June 2025 10.00–11.30 GMT/BST (UK time)
GMT/BST (UK time)
Location: Zoom meeting
This event is now fully booked.
Goldsmiths students (full time)*
£289
Students (full time)*
£343
Freelancers**
£574
Small Media/Education/NonProfit Organisations (<10 staff)
£950
Large Media/Education/NonProfit Organisations (10+ staff)
£1410
Other Organisations
£2638

One ticket per person.

In line with our non-profit mission, our pricing operates on a sliding scale, ensuring large organisations pay more to subsidise places for smaller newsrooms, freelancers and students.

*Students places for this course are capped, due to limited capacity. Anyone registering as a student will be asked for a photo/scan of their student ID ahead of the course.

**Employed individuals who cannot have their employers pay for the course are entitled to the freelancer rate. Note that we are a small charity and rely on your honesty so please do not register as a freelancer if your employer is reimbursing you for the course.

We have a strict policy of No Refund and No Transfer of bookings.

27–28 March 2025

Climate Investigations Course: Climate Investigation Fundamentals

This introductory module provides participants with a holistic background about climate change as one of the major issues confronting the world. Participants will access specialist knowledge to better understand the context from a science, policy, and politics perspective.

14–17 April 2025

Climate Investigations Course: Data-Driven Climate Investigations

With so much climate data across many different countries and regions, it's essential to know where to find the relevant information and how to dig deeper when you're in the midst of a big climate project.

12–15 May 2025

Climate Investigations Course: Investigating Climate Finance

Billions are committed every year as part of the global reaction to the climate crisis. Whether invested in renewable energy, traded as carbon credits or assigned to mitigation or loss and damage funds, huge sums are involved.

3–6 June 2025

Climate Investigations Course: ECOSINT

ECOSINT: Environmental and Climate Open-Source Intelligence Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is now a fixture in many newsrooms and can be applied to a wide range of investigative objectives. However, in many ways it is particularly useful when researching climate and environmental stories.