Climate law: What journalists need to know ahead of the vote in June
In-person roundtable – Wednesday, 3 May 2023 at 6 pm, Bern
On 18 June, the Swiss population will vote on a new climate law (Klimaschutz-Gesetz / Loi pour la protection du climat). For the first time, Switzerland could enshrine the goal of reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050 in its law. The debate leading up to the vote is bound to be intense.
How can journalists ensure that they cover this complex issue in a critical, scientific and in-depth manner? We will discuss the content of the proposed law from a scientific perspective and how it could shape the country’s climate policy.
The event will take place at 6 pm at SWI swissinfo.ch, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). The address is Schwarztorstrasse 21, Room S21, 3007 Bern.
Three speakers will be joining us:
- Marcel Hänggi, former science journalist, will share a brief history of the Gletscher-Initiative that he launched after covering COP21 in Paris and how it changed Switzerland’s climate policy (download presentation slides)
- Alex Tiefenbacher, climate journalist at Das Lamm and founding member of the network, will introduce the CO2 law and its current stakes (download presentation slides)
- Augustin Fragnière, an expert in climate policy at the University of Lausanne, will unravel the content of the Klimaschutz-Gesetz that the Swiss population will vote on in June, from a scientific perspective (download presentation slides)
The presentations and the subsequent open discussion will be held in English. Rachel Barbara Häubi (Heidi.news) and Lukas Schnyder (Endemol Shine Group) from our network will host the evening event.
To take part or for any questions, please email us at info@climatejournalism.ch
We will finish our meeting with drinks and dinner at a restaurant in Bern (unfortunately, we cannot cover your costs). For those joining us for dinner, please RSVP by Thursday, 27 April 2023, so we can make a reservation for you.
Our meetings are open to all professional journalists (and journalism students).
For existing and new members of our network: We start at 5.15 pm with an internal meeting. Membership is free and open to any journalists and students based in Switzerland.
Please spread the word and invite your colleagues. We look forward to seeing you!
Past events
How can journalists tell climate stories from a local point of view?
We’ll meet in person for the first time and discuss the challenges and opportunities for climate journalists working for local news outlets. The session is kindly hosted by the online magazine Hauptstadt in Bern.
We’re happy to have three guests who will share their insights with us in a panel discussion lasting about 90 minutes: Isabel Brun, Patrick Gasser and Florent Hiard.
Isabel is a climate journalist for the Zurich-based online magazine Tsüri.ch and reports at irregular intervals on climate issues that concern Switzerland’s largest city. Once a month she tries to broaden her view — because Zurich is not the centre of the world — and summarises striking, sad, important, or shocking news about the climate crisis in a briefing. (Always on the verge of losing hope.)
Patrick is an editor at the Walliser Bote newspaper in Visp. Growing up as a farmer’s child, he studied journalism at the MAZ in Luzern and graduated in 2015. He now lives in Saas-Fee, where he witnesses the effects of climate change on a daily basis. Hence, he’s interested in meteorological and climate topics in the canton of Valais.
Florent is a journalist and is in charge of the web edition of the Nyon-based newspaper La Côte. As a former research assistant in geosciences and a science and geography teacher, he jumped into journalism in 2019, addressing environmental stories through their scientific, economic and political aspects.
The panel discussion will be held in English and will take place at Hauptstadt’s premises at Belpstrasse 53, 3007 Bern – a 10-minute walk from the train station. Florian Wüstholz, a freelance journalist and co-founder of our network, will moderate the discussion.
After the panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zischg will lead us on a 60-minute climate-themed walk through Bern. He will break down the expected climatic changes in the local context of Bern and discuss how they affect wellbeing and ongoing transformation processes. Zischg is a professor of modelling for human-environmental systems at the University of Bern. He also co-directs the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks at the university’s Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, where he studies the interactions between environmental changes, natural risks and societal transformations.
To take part in our climate journalism afternoon, please email us at info@climatejournalism.ch
We’ll finish our meeting with dinner and drinks for anyone interested. (Unfortunately, we cannot cover the costs, but we can provide fun and laughter.) For those joining us for dinner, please RSVP by Monday, 23 January 2023, so we can make a reservation.
Our meetings are for professional journalists (and journalism students) only.
For existing members of the network: We start at 3 PM with an internal meeting.
How can journalists use satellite images to investigate and visualise the climate crisis?
Find out in our 2nd session on Thursday, 10 November 2022, from 12.30 to 1.30 PM (CET) via Zoom. Our guests are Adina Renner and Edward Boyda.
Adina is a visual data journalist with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). With data, design, and code, Adina connects people and subjects that matter. One of her latest investigations: how palm oil threatens protected rainforest in Indonesia.
Edward is managing partner at Earthrise Media. He is a physicist, educator, satellite investigator, and data scientist. Edward taught the NASA quantum computer to find Californian trees in satellite imagery. And he teamed up with Reuters reporters to investigate how China’s largest freshwater lake was decimated by sand mining.
Sylke Gruhnwald, a freelance investigative journalist and co-founder of our network, will moderate the discussion.
To take part in our second lunchtime talk, please join our newsletter; we will send out the Zoom link on the morning of the 15th. Our meetings are for professional journalists (and journalism students) only.
First meeting – 29 June 2022: 12.30 – 1.30 PM
We kick off our network with a lunchtime talk on Wednesday, 29 June from 12.30 to 1.30 PM via Zoom. Our guest speaker will be Diego Arguedas Ortiz from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
Diego will talk about the state of climate journalism, with a focus on the challenges journalists face – and how they can overcome them. He will also present some findings from Reuters’ latest research into audience attitudes/climate news consumption; there will be time for your questions, too!
Diego has covered climate change since 2013 and founded the first dedicated news outlet in Central America. He now lives in the UK and runs the Oxford Climate Journalism Network at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which has 200 members from 60 countries.
Sabrina Weiss, a freelance journalist and co-founder of our network, will host the meeting.
To take part in the first meeting, please join our newsletter; we’re going to publish the Zoom link there on the morning of the 29th. Our meetings are for professional journalists (and journalism students) only.