Paid reporting opportunity: carbon offsets

May 4, 2022
MONGABAY.ORG

If you are a journalist interested in writing about carbon credits, offsets or markets, Mongabay wants to hear your story!

Spurred by growing demand from polluting industries, carbon offsets can be created in a variety of ways, from industrial cap-and-trade to REDD+ schemes that are based on forest management, as well as a new class of green bonds that use debt financing to pay for climate adaptation projects. By 2030, estimates suggest the market for offsetting carbon emissions will grow by over 6000% to about $23 billion. With this in mind, now is a critical time to maintain objective reporting and ensure public understanding and transparency related to these schemes.

If you’re new to the topics, be sure to check out Mongabay’s video explainer on the issue or the webinar we hosted on April 28th.

Our interests

Mongabay is seeking stories that improve our understanding of these schemes and how effective they are in achieving climate goals, the key players involved in their financing and regulation, and the actions of groups offering carbon offsets for sale in national and regional carbon trading markets. Topics of interest include:

  • Reforestation projects that have signed up with accredited carbon offset bodies.
  • Financing schemes such as green bonds.
  • Previously unreported or newly launched REDD+ projects, or significant recent developments with existing projects.
  • Case studies of corporations using carbon offset schemes. Have they been meeting their commitments?
  • Impacts of emissions trading schemes on communities living near polluters.
  • Schemes that use emissions trading or offset credits to greenwash products.
  • Public relations initiatives aimed at promoting carbon offsets as a climate change solution.
  • Regulators and managers of the voluntary carbon offset markets.

For some examples of stories previously published under this project see this page.

Submitting your pitch

Mongabay is excited to offer paid opportunities for journalists to report on carbon offsets, and welcome new story proposals for print, video, data, and multimedia journalism. For a full description and details about how to submit your pitch, please click here.