Change is afoot in the number of international journalists in developing countries reporting on global climate change.

With a yearly budget of $1 million, the Earth Journalism Network, EJN, has become a leader among nonprofit organizations actively building networks of environmental journalists and communicators in the poorest of nations. In the past five years, the group has trained 1,000 journalists who have produced some 2,000 stories on the environment.

Media reporting on climate change has emerged as EJN’s main focus in the last two years.

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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA — Growing tensions between scientists and major news outlets in Australia center around scientists’ concerns over coverage of the potential effects of climate change on coral reefs.

Many of the environmental scientists point to what they see as biased and misleading reporting, leaving them frustrated and wondering how they can best engage in a public debate that seems to have left them behind.

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Along with the U.S. … China makes up the climate change ‘G2′

It’s a virtual truism that two countries matter above all others when it comes to avoiding the most severe impacts of anthropogenic climate change: the U.S. and China.

That’s why so much was on the line when President Obama visited China last fall, and why speculation up to, during, and since Copenhagen focused so much on what the “G2″ might or might not agree to.

But understanding in the U.S. of how climate change plays out in China and Chinese media is sparse.

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View Braasch’s Copenhagen Photos

COPENHAGEN, Sunday 20 December 2009 (7 am local time) — The 11th-hour “Copenhagen Accord” agreed to by the U.S., China, and three other major greenhouse gas emitting countries capped 14 days of frustrating negotiation, contention, oration, and demonstrations. The final agreement, while disappointing in so many ways, nonetheless came as an upbeat and unexpected outcome - an alternative to no agreement at all - and one that just might open the way for breakthroughs down the road.

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‘The little mermaid’ in Copenhagen Harbour.

Six freelance journalists - an eclectic mix of writers, climate bloggers, photojournalists, youth advocates, and educators - are submitting copy to The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media between December 7 and the scheduled end of the international climate negotiations in mid-December.

Get updates here - and check back often - for our correspondents’ unique takes on the goings-on.

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Tropical deforestation, mainly in Brazil and Indonesia, releases massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, but political, social, and scientific concerns kept the issue off the table during negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol.

As the world prepares for a Kyoto successor, the climate has changed, so to speak, both because reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD) may be essential to achieving short-term emissions goals, and because potential financial and other benefits for developing countries are coming into focus. As a result, REDD has emerged as a major issue in the climate change negotiations, and a topic of interest for anyone who wants to understand these proceedings or explain them to others.

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On June 27, The Independent in London ran a story that read “Exclusive: No Ice at the North Pole.”

The headline was off on two counts: there was nothing exclusive about the story, and it’s premature to say the North Pole is ice-free.

Andrew C. Revkin, in his DotEarth blog for The New York Times, reported as much when he posted a piece later in the day about what’s going on with Arctic sea ice, who’s tracking the changes and how the media are covering it.

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A series of domestic and global developments are increasing the impact of climate change on the banking and financial industry and reporters covering those beats.

The changes are under way notwithstanding growing pressures from the sagging economy and real estate foreclosures.

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The story of climate change is a story of water - how much of it falls from the sky and where, whether it falls as rain or snow, and how fast it melts and evaporates once it’s on the ground.

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Sure, climate change now has a more prominent place on the media agenda. But that doesn’t mean news organizations will always pay prominent attention - or any attention, for that matter - to the global warming angle in a given story.

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