When is the next conference?
There will be no standalone Climate Arena conference in 2026. Instead, we’ll be joining forces with Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference, hosted in Mechelen, Belgium on 28–31 May 2026.
Climate Arena sessions and community will be part of Dataharvest, and we are very much looking forward to it.
For tickets and more info, you can go here.
We hope and work hard to return as a standalone conference in 2027
What kind of conference is Climate Arena?
Climate Arena is a hands-on, working conference, focused on sharing tools and methods, datasets, insights, and planting the seeds of collaborations, creating the space for building connections and setting up new cross-border projects. It is primarily a journalism conference organised by and for journalists, but we always incorporate scientists and climate researchers into our programme and encourage them to attend.
There are usually a mix of panels, workshops and networking sessions. Around 200 journalists from around Europe attend.
Where is the conference programme?
There is no standalone conference in 2026. You can check Dataharvest 2026 programme (upcoming) to see our climate-related sessions. For past Climate Arena programmes, you can go to the dedicated pages on this website.
What does the conference fee include?
It includes two full day conference attendance, coffee breaks and lunch.
I can’t attend the conference. How do I cancel my ticket?
Life happens. You can cancel your ticket until a predetermined day we will announce when the ticket sales open. Cancellations are subject to a charge of 25% of the registration fees for administrative costs. If you paid with a credit card, the money will be transferred to your account in 7-14 days. If you paid with a bank transfer, please send your bank account number, including SWIFT/IBAN code, and the order number to climate@journalismarena.eu, and we will transfer the money.
For cancellations after the predetermined day, full payment is requested, and refunds will not be provided, but we will be happy to transfer your registration to a colleague of yours at no extra cost.
I am a speaker. Do I need to buy a ticket?
No. Our team will send you a speaker’s code to register and claim your free ticket.
I am a speaker. What is expected of me?
We want you to prepare well and deliver your talk/training in a way that will genuinely be useful for attendees. This is a methods-focused conference so we especially value sharing skills and expertise. We also appreciate when speakers talk about their learnings, good and bad. We prepared some tips for you, please check the tips for speakers.
Do you cover costs for speakers?
We ask for your organisation to cover your travel and accommodation costs, especially if you’re coming from a large newsroom. However, if you are a freelancer or your organisation cannot cover the costs, we will cover your travel costs and arrange accommodation for you. This is only for our speakers.
Can my spouse/children/partner/etc come with me?
If you have a child with you, feel free to bring them to the conference but please keep in mind we do not have childcare help. Anybody additional will need to buy a ticket and will need to be a journalist, scientist or a researcher.
If you’re a speaker and we are arranging your accommodation, you can bring a plus-one to stay with you but you have to communicate this information with the hotel and pay for the difference yourself.
What is the Climate Arena Fellowship programme?
Each year we have a fellowship opportunity for those who have a cross-border and investigative climate story idea and are eager to work in a team setting. For more information, go to the fellowships page. Please note we do not have a fellowship programme for 2026, as there is no conference this year.
Will you live-stream or record the conference sessions?
This is a fully in-person conference so no sessions will be live-streamed or recorded. Participants can live-tweet or write about what’s being talked about during the sessions, unless the speakers tell the audience otherwise.
How do you ensure a climate-friendly conference?
We thought a lot about this. Despite the challenges they bring, we believe in the power of face-to-face events. We encourage our attendees to travel by train and bus instead of by plane, though we understand this is not always possible. If we are covering travel costs, we ask our speakers to book train and bus tickets even if they’re more expensive. Our conference hotels are always within walking distance to the venue. During the conference, we do not use or distribute paper materials apart from name tags and a few posters, nor do we sell any conference merchandise. We only use catering companies that can serve vegetarian and vegan food, made with local produce, and without single-use materials. Because of this, our waste is always minimal. We know this is a drop in the ocean.
We believe the burden to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis lies with governments and regional bodies, who must enact strong climate policies, tackle lobbying, fight disinformation, tax multinational corporations, and punish wrongdoing. We are a few hundred journalists coming together to network, build trust, and we do what we can so our footprint is minimal.
Who is financially supporting Climate Arena?
We are thankful to the European Climate Foundation and the Laudes Foundation for financially supporting our work. We have complete editorial independence on the themes and topics we cover in the conference and the speakers we invite.
