Climate Hope

Panic not, whoever wins the election come May, tackling climate change is on their to-do list. That was the message from the UK’s main party leaders this Saturday, as Cameron, Clegg and Miliband all put their scrawl to a cross-party pledge declaring climate change was “one of the most serious threats facing the world today”. You’d be forgiven for being underwhelmed by the news. Credit: Green Alliance It’s not the first time all three parties have supported strong climate action. That was in 2008, when all but five MPs voted for the rather more significant Climate Change Act . It’s also not the first time the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour have pledged to tackle the problem. All three parties promised to do something about it in the run up to the 2010 election. And it’s definitely not the first time these three politicians have called climate change a threat. Cameron said so in his first speech as Conservative party leader in 2006, Clegg said so in his career-making appea...

... from someone who learned the hard way. "This makes no sense." "This is garbled." "No normal person can understand this." Time and again during my two and a bit years as a climate change journalist, a little yellow box would pop up alerting me to my editor's consternation. And they were spot on. I started with some knowledge, lots of enthusiasm, and no writing skills whatsoever. But as time went on, I like to think things improved. Here are five things I wish I'd known before I started. If you want to write about climate change, maybe they'll help you, too.

For the last two years I have worked for Carbon Brief , a website specialising in analysing all things climate change. Today is my last day. Here are a few reflections on a how things have changed in that time. “Hi. My name’s Mat Hope and I write for a climate change blog called Carbon Brief. I was just hoping to ask you a few questions about…. That’s right, a blog... It’s like a website…” In 2012, that’s how most of my phone interviews would start. Two and half years later, things have changed. More than a bit. What is a ‘blogger’? Like the poor, confused, press officer invariably on the end of the phone, I’m not all that sure. But I’m pretty sure I started as one, and ended up as something else: a journalist, perhaps?