The most important climate summit in history is a local news story, too

A LONGSTANDING CHALLENGE FOR CLIMATE COVERAGE is that climate change is so big, so all-encompassing, that journalists sometimes struggle with where to start. That can go double for local journalists, whose scope is necessarily hyperfocused. The climate story threads together megacorporations, heads of state, our forests, the oceans, and even what’s for dinner. For outlets whose remit is smaller than at least a country, how to make that all relevant to audiences? More on the nose, when there’s global climate news, where does a local newsroom find its place?

The fast-approaching international climate summit, set to begin October 31 in Glasgow, illustrates this dilemma well. The summit, called COP26 (short for the 26th Conference of the Parties), is the follow-up to the landmark 2015 meeting that gave us the Paris Agreement, in which countries agreed to limit global heating above pre-industrial levels to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, with an aspirational target of 1.5 degrees C. We’re at roughly 1.1 degrees C now, and global carbon emissions remain high. In Glasgow, countries are expected to update their respective emissions-reduction plans, while hopefully also reaching new deals to pick up the pace. Alok Sharma, a British member of parliament and the COP26 president, has called the summit the world’s “last best chance” to turn back the rising tide.

Click here to read more.