Global news coverage of climate change declined for the fourth straight year in 2025, even as emissions hit new highs, according to a new analysis.
Coverage is down 14 percent from 2024 and down 38 percent from 2021, when the volume of reporting on climate change peaked, according to an analysis from the Media and Climate Change Observatory, a project at the University of Colorado. Coverage of climate change declined in every region, but the drop-off was most pronounced in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
“Ongoing political economic headwinds and newsroom consolidation and reductions have contributed to this diminished coverage, said lead author Max Boykoff, a professor at the University of Colorado. “Moreover, there is finite news space for competing stories, with the Trump administration flooding the public sphere with news stories across several domains.”
In the U.S., climate journalists have found themselves on the chopping block at leading news outlets. CBS News laid off most of its climate team in October, and in February The Washington Post followed suit. The paper dismissed 14 climate journalists, including reporters, editors, and videographers.
The drop in news coverage will have an impact on public understanding, Boykoff said. “When the media fail to cover these pressing climate issues abundantly and accurately, people may not recognize how climate change shapes their daily lives, livelihoods, and challenges.”
Meanwhile, as news coverage of climate declined, fossil fuel emissions hit new highs in each of the last four years. The last three years were the hottest on record, measuring roughly 1.5 degrees C warmer than the preindustrial era. Beyond 1.5 degrees of warming, scientists say the Earth is at greater risk of crossing critical tipping points, from the breakdown of Atlantic currents to the dieback of the Amazon rainforest, that would further accelerate warming.
“Nothing major about the science has changed,” said climate journalist Chris Mooney, a practitioner fellow at the University of Virginia, in a post on the drop in news coverage. “But I think there is just fatigue, reflecting in part the domestic and global failures to show significant progress on the issue.”
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