Access to publicly held information is essential to independent, accurate, and robust reporting on the climate and environmental crisis — both its harms and potential solutions.
This critical link is reinforced by the theme of this year’s International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI): ensuring access to environmental information in the digital age. IDUAI is marked annually on September 28.
To mark IDUAI 2025, IPI calls on states to ensure and uphold journalists’ right to access environmental and climate data and information as part of their work to inform public debate and promote climate and environmental accountability.
It’s simple: To do their work, journalists must have access to the data.
A recurring challenge
IPI research has identified limited access to information as a key challenge faced by environmental and climate reporters globally.
Reporters often grapple with entrenched cultures of secrecy, tedious and costly information request processes, non-compliance with FOI requests, opaque and incompatible data systems, and overly redacted documents from both public bodies and companies.
In Africa, climate and environmental journalists — whether investigating illegal mining practics in Ghana or water pollution caused by foreign construction companies in Zambia — face a multitude of obstacles in accessing information from private and state actors alike.
Limited legal framework, insufficient implementation
The difficulties experienced by climate and environmental journalists also expose the implementation challenge of existing right-to-information legal frameworks. About three-quarters of U.N. member states have adopted freedom of information laws, including at least 29 African countries.
At the regional level, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean have passed the Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement, respectively, which promote access to environmental information. Both instruments, however, require full ratification and implementation.
Meanwhile, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is currently consulting on a soft law framework for accessing data, and discourse on the development of an environmental rights agreement is underway.
While such legislative efforts hold promise, there often remains a yawning gap between law and practice. Moreover, recent actions by powerful countries such as the U.S., which has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and taken down climate change reports, do not bode well for open information pathways for journalists, researchers, activists, and the public.
Urgent action needed
Access to accurate and relevant environmental data is at the heart of addressing the harmful impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. States must meet this need by establishing systems and policies for information access that enable robust, independent reporting.
“Climate and environmental journalists cannot effectively support the public’s right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment without access to relevant data”, IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said. “If we want to address climate change and meet sustainable development goals, states must comply with national, regional, and international laws and principle and information access, and create policies that support open data systems that promote accessibility, inclusivity, and interoperability.”
IPI this year launched a new initiative to protect and support climate and environmental journalism in Africa. In addition to carrying out monitoring and advocacy in support of environmental journalists at risk, we’re building multistakeholder networks to improve knowledge and information sharing in support of robust environmental reporting. Learn more here.