Carbon Brief

• 1. Introduction

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  Carbon Brief launched as a direct response to the Climategate controversy. The European Climate Foundation stepped in as funder, and the outlet took root in London with a mandate to cover climate science and policy with rigor and depth. In the years since, statisticians, media industry judges, and science writing associations have all recognized its journalism. What the judges said when honoring Carbon Brief's editor tells precisely what kind of journalism this outlet has built.

• 2. A Long-Form Mandate

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  In 2020, the Association of British Science Writers named Leo Hickman their Editor of the Year. Hickman is Carbon Brief's director and editor. The judges were specific about why he stood out. They praised his courage to give journalists extra time and latitude to research complex climate subjects. Long-form journalism was desperately needed, the judges wrote, at a moment when time to do something about climate change was running out. Interactive graphics came in for specific praise. The judges called them "absolutely awesome" and said they made otherwise dry subjects more fun and entertaining. Hickman's team also extended the outlet's geographical reach by translating material into multiple other languages. Carbon Brief's climate-and-energy coverage is regularly cited by other news outlets and by climate-focused websites. That visibility brought recognition from The Drum Online Media Awards, which named Carbon Brief the Best Specialist Site for Journalism in 2017.

• 3. What the Statisticians Noticed

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  The Royal Statistical Society gave Carbon Brief a Highly Commended award for investigative journalism in 2018. The recognized piece was "Mapped: How UK foreign aid is spent on climate change," co-authored by Leo Hickman and Rosamund Pearce. Two years later, the same society returned with a Highly Commended in data visualisation. That recognition went to "How the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade." Rosamund Pearce's name on that 2018 byline places a specific journalist at the center of the work the Royal Statistical Society decided to honor.