Award ceremony: Nordic Prize for Best Climate and Environmental Journalism

Welcome to the award ceremony for “KLIMAPRESS” – a new Nordic prize in climate and environmental journalism.

The Department of Journalism and Media Studies at OsloMet and The Norwegian Institute for Journalism established a new, annual Nordic prize in climate and environmental journalism in 2025. This year, in 2026, The Department of Media Studies and Journalism at Aarhus University, the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) and Nordic Journalist Centre (NJC) will be host for the second KLIMAPRESS award ceremony in Copenhagen.

The purpose of the prize is to highlight the best of our climate and environmental journalism in the Nordics and inspire investment in climate and environmental issues among Nordic journalists.

We have called the prize KLIMAPRESS, and it will be awarded for the second time this year, in connection with the KLIMAPRESS (Climate Pressure) conference.

All nominations for the KLIMAPRESS 2026 award must be sent to kontakt@njc.dk by 1 September 2026.

The climate crisis is putting pressure on nature, our societies – and on journalism. In the Nordic countries, editorial offices have upgraded their climate journalism in recent years. The nature crisis, various types of pollution, and other environmental problems also require more attention.

Conflicts between climate and nature have also become clearer – for example in increased opposition to wind power development.

Nevertheless, climate and environmental problems are being pushed more into the background of public debate. Other crises and threats dominate the Nordic agenda, even though many “know” that the climate crisis contributes to intensifying these other threats.

Forest fires in the USA, torrential rain in Spain, drought in the Sahel, floods in Norway – climate change takes lives and destroys assets worldwide, every day, and we know that finding solutions to limit the damage is urgent. Yet the climate crisis is not prioritized in most media outlets’ channels.

And still, more brilliant climate journalism is being done than ever before. More journalists are acquiring knowledge and tools to cover the climate and nature crisis, finding new ways to investigate and report, creating journalism that informs, engages, and has consequences. The KLIMAPRESS prize hope to inspire more of this.

Both individual journalists and editorial offices or groups can be nominated, and the jury will consider individual stories, packages with multiple stories that illuminate the same theme, and larger initiatives as candidates for this year’s prize.

The stories can be published in text, photo series, video, or audio format by small or large editorial offices. For long video and audio reports, a short version of maximum three minutes can advantageously be included with the nomination in addition to a link to the original version. The short version can be an existing trailer or a new clip that highlights the best aspects or thematic core of the story.

The nominated stories must have been published to a Nordic audience from June 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026.

The stories can be nominated in their original language of publication, as long as it is one of the Nordic languages or English.

Journalism is often called the first draft of history, and nominations can well be justified in new ways, with criteria other than these two.

Plus representatives from Denmark and Sweden