Groundbreaking reporting on the climate crisis, from Inside Climate News

The Chemours chemical plant in Louisville, Kentucky, emitted more greenhouse gases annually than all the cars in the city put together – until Inside Climate News came along. Their reporters shined a spotlight on the plant, and in response to ICN’s stories, the company announced it will clean up 90% of its greenhouse gas pollution within two years, the rest within four. The end result will be equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the road.

This is just one example of how ICN makes a difference. Inside Climate News is the leading voice of independent climate journalism in the country. Its groundbreaking work reduces greenhouse gas emissions, holds polluters accountable, empowers voters, and protects communities suffering from environmental injustice.

Now in its 13th year, Inside Climate News has built the largest dedicated climate newsroom in the country. They’ve published thousands of stories, released investigations that have permanently changed the national conversation, and won dozens of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

ICN is, and has been since its founding, ahead of the curve on climate change reporting. In 2015, the ICN team revealed how Exxon worked at the forefront of climate misinformation, denying the science its own researchers had confirmed. ICN’s investigation spawned the global hashtag #ExxonKnew and earned many of journalism’s highest honors, including recognition as a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Their journalists have decades of expertise reporting on a topic that is still new to many reporters today. They have had a defining impact on national climate coverage, and continue to publish agenda-setting stories. Now they are again breaking new ground in their coverage of environmental justice, and also their work in local news markets, acting as a life-preserver and force multiplier for environmental journalism.

Environmental injustice has long been a beat at ICN, but last year the newsroom moved it to the center of their coverage, focusing on how climate impacts disproportionately affect communities of color and burden vulnerable populations. Since then, almost a quarter of the stories they have published sits squarely at the point where climate change and justice intersect. The newsroom also welcomes, trains, and mentors up-and-coming journalists of color through an ongoing fellowship program.

ICN brings environmental journalism to underserved communities and strengthens the reporting capacity of local newsrooms through its Environment Reporting Network. ICN’s reporters and editors work in partnership with dozens of local news outlets to support and deepen their environmental reporting, and ICN’s local reporting is free and available for partners to co-publish. The goal is to provide a vital and fundamental civic service, to inform underserved readers with accurate and balanced news about the climate crisis afflicting their daily lives.

Unlike their primary competitors, ICN’s work can reach anyone, anywhere – free of charge – with no paywall or subscription fee, filling a public service mission that only ICN, at the moment, can fill.

This month, you can vote to help CREDO distribute a portion of our monthly grant to Inside Climate News and help them further invest in reporting the facts about the climate crisis. Visit CREDODonations.com this September to cast your vote.