People work on a mud-covered street with damaged cars in the aftermath of torrential rains that caused flooding in Paiporta, near Valencia (Spain). REUTERS/Eva Manez
As we celebrate World Radio Day 2025, which UNESCO dedicated to this medium and climate change, it is worth focusing on how radio stations are reporting and talking about climate change. So, we spoke to eight audio reporters and producers who are members of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) to hear how they manage to report on this topic.
They all spoke about radio’s incredible superpower: a medium that can whisper in your ear, echo from the corner of the kitchen, or shout from the speakers of a bus. Radio allows listeners to multitask. But it also requires them to follow a story carefully to fully picture a scene. For a topic like climate change, too often technical and dry, radio can offer a human voice.
“Radio tells stories in a more intimate way and reaches people differently,” said Júlia Dias Carneiro, a freelance journalist who works for NPR from Rio de Janeiro and is a member of our current course at the OCJN.
Radio journalism allows you not only to explain things or confront politicians, said Jan Kaliba, climate correspondent at Czech Radio, but also bring in real voices and emotions and build an atmosphere.
“[I can] take the audience with me to the places where the impacts of climate change are most dramatic, or to show [them] the emotions of the people who are dedicated to climate action or who fear that climate action will hurt them financially,” explains Kaliba, the first-ever climate correspondent for its station and a member of one of our cohorts in 2024.
These reporters and producers are eight of the 700 members from over 120 countries who have taken our flagship programme since the Oxford Climate Journalism Network started in 2022. Collectively, they report in Spanish, Pashto, Czech, Portuguese and English, and share an optimism about the power of audio journalism in climate storytelling.
“I feel a great responsibility because in a world saturated with superficial information, many people turn to podcasts seeking deeper and well-documented analysis,” said Daniela Cruzat, a senior producer in Santiago for the podcast El Hilo, from Radio Ambulante Studios, and a current member of our climate network.
Our own research on climate audiences shows that radio is one of the less common sources of climate news. Only 9% of our respondents in eight countries said they accessed climate news and information via the radio in the last week, a smaller percentage than TV (31%), online (24%) and social media (19%), and a similar one to documentaries (11%) and newspapers (10%).
But radio has its own strengths, say our members, including its connection with hard-to-reach audiences for climate reporting.
“One thing I value about traditional radio shows is reaching an audience who may not care much about climate change,” said Eloise Gibson, climate correspondent for Radio New Zealand, who joined our network in 2022.
“They might be in their car and tune in for a weather report or the world’s headlines, and find themselves learning about green hydrogen or blue carbon.”
Beyond this ability to connect with audiences that would be otherwise hard to reach, radio also holds an advantage over other formats, said Íñigo Alfonso, who joined our programme this year, as it creates a personal bridge with those who listen, while also demanding (and allowing) more participation from the audience.
“The radio allows the listener to complete with their knowledge or imagination the our news stories, [they are] part of them,” explains Alfonso, a veteran radio reporter who from 2018 to 2024 was the director and main anchor of Las Mañanas, the signature morning news program at the Spanish public radio RNE.
“That is the secret that makes radio so valuable,” he said.
Radio can also be a crucial medium in areas that are not well served by other media, while simultaneously being impacted by climate change.
For instance, the BBC World Service reaches 320 million people every week through its 42 language services. This is a huge opportunity for climate journalism, said Mora Morrison, producer for What in the World, a radio programme and podcast on the BBC World Service.
“Many people who listen to the World Service will be living on the frontlines of climate change, and will rely on radio news to deliver clear, fact-based journalism, so although digital journalism is obviously growing rapidly, radio still plays a vital role,” said Morrison, who joined our course in 2024.
In August 2024, Pakistani reporter Muhammad Daud Khan was reporting a story on the poor fruit harvest in northwestern Pakistan, where his radio station broadcasts in Pashto. Farmers in the agricultural Kurram Valley faced multi-million dollar damages as they witnessed crop failure due to heavy rains.
Khan produced an audio feature and a two-way broadcast, where his team connected farmers and the local agriculture department researcher.
“The farmers shared their losses and the agriculture researchers talked about solutions,” explains Khan, a producer for Pakhtunkhwa Radio Kurram, who joined our programme in 2022. “We explained a climate-induced problem and also provided a solution to the farmers,” said Khan. “I received an overwhelming response from the listeners.”
This ability to bring climate experts closer to the audience was mentioned by several of our members.
Evalilian Massawe, a journalist and radio presenter with Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, once booked a climate expert for a session about the basics of climate change. She titled the segment “Climate Change from Scratch”.
“I consider this to be one of my favourites because it explained the meaning of climate change in the simplest of forms and broke down into tiny bits how an individual may contribute to climate change,” said Massawe, who took part in our programme in 2024.
Radio also allows for deep human stories. Kaliba, from Czechia, produced a programme called Czech Climate 2024, which used social science methods to define seven typical groups of Czech people according to their attitudes to climate change. Then the reporters found and recorded interviews with real people for each group.
One of them was a listener who, while not denying climate science, was part of a “softer” category of people who didn’t think climate change was a big issue.
“We ate his favourite meal for lunch, and he showed me where in the Caribbean they spend winters,” said Kaliba. “He was so emotional and a great storyteller, it sounded really great on air compared to the arid expert analysis and for me it was an important visit to a bubble where I usually don’t find myself in.”
But what makes good climate journalism really tick on audio? “As a radio journalist I can’t just rely on talking heads, so I’m always looking for colourful sounds,” said Radio New Zealand’s Gibson. “People on the street talking about a heatwave, the engine of a hydrogen truck or the clink of solar panels turning can add a lot to a piece.”
But the colour can disappear if one gets the wrong soundbite, said Gibson, who recently moved to broadcast from an online outlet.
“You need your interviewees to give compelling quotes, you can’t paraphrase a bad delivery,” she explains. “It’s worth getting people to try again if you suspect you've missed the mark... it’s tough to fix after the fact.”
The physical tools of radio journalism, compared with other forms of broadcasting, also make it easier to get your contributors comfortable, argued several of our members.
“Interviewees often speak more freely when they don’t have to be camera-shy, and I believe this makes a difference when talking to ordinary people, who tend to open up more about situations they face,” said Dias Carneiro, the Brazilian freelancer in Rio.
Once the voices are there, audio journalists can tackle stories about climate change without brushing off its complexity, said RNE’s Alfonso.
“We have to select any figures we present very carefully [so we do] not overwhelm our audience and we have to build a script that combines data with the voices of the protagonists,” he said.
Morrison, the BBC producer, agreed that while the complex and multi-faceted aspects of climate stories can feel overwhelming, they also pose an interesting question for producers.
“The key, for me, is to try and think of it as a creative challenge,” she said. “How can I use soundscapes to make the story more immersive? Who is the best person to make science feel more digestible? Or, is there a different format – for example a ‘true or false’ game – which I could use as an insert to help debunk climate misinformation and disinformation?”
Many members argued that radio and audio journalism have a deep historical commitment to public service.
Alfonso, for instance, recalled covering the social and economic impact of a drought in Spain for his morning programme, and sharing ideas and research to help regular people deal with water scarcity.
It’s also a fantastic tool for reporting during extreme weather, said Khan from Pakistan’s Pakhtunkhwa Radio Kurram. Even if the internet goes down, you can go to areas impacted by extreme weather and tell the story from there.
“It is the quickest and cheapest source of information. We can use the radio for early warning. It is a good source of information on climate-induced disasters,” he said. “Radio is a powerful tool for climate change reporting and for spreading quick information.”
The ease of audio journalism also works in urban areas, where radio has seen a comeback in the form of podcasting when people don’t have time or concentration to consume written or visual journalism, but are able to listen.
In Latin America, Radio Ambulante Studios have listening clubs where its audiences discuss episodes with the rest of the community and the staff producing its shows.
“This provides a beautiful opportunity to engage with complex issues like the climate crisis in a way that feels less overwhelming,” argued Cruzat in Santiago.
This ability to bring people together might be one of the strongest arguments for audio journalism about climate change, regardless of how it’s packaged.
“As much as there are new means of capturing the ‘techno-generation’ through the digital platforms, there is still a huge community with a lot of people in it that looks at radio as more than just a form of media, but part of a culture,” argued Massawe from the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.
“Radio still remains to be one of the strongest platforms for climate journalism.”
In every email we send you'll find original reporting, evidence-based insights, online seminars and readings curated from 100s of sources - all in 5 minutes.
In every email we send you'll find original reporting, evidence-based insights, online seminars and readings curated from 100s of sources - all in 5 minutes.
