The press coverage of various climate governance forums is not enough to allow informed public discussion, write Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Lars Friberg, and Edoardo Saccenti, all of Wageningen University.

The authors analysed the coverage of 18 intergovernmental climate meetings, arranged between 2004 and 2009. Articles and opinion pieces regarding those meetings were gathered from seven quality newspapers, all from different countries (Finland, India, Laos, Norway, South Africa, UK and USA).

The tally shows that only few meetings gathered notable press attention. Exceptions were the United Nations Conferences on Climate Change, meetings that were attended by heads of state, or meetings that introduced new initiatives. According to the authors, the patchwork coverage is not enough to inform publics over the particulars of global climate governance, considering its fragmented nature.

The article “Read all about it!?” was published by the journal Climate Policy. It is available online (abstract free).

Picture: Untitled by JacekAbramowicz, licence CC0 1.0.