Thomson Reuters launches climate change news site

It is a website called Sustainability which tracks changes in interest levels and examines the appearance and impact of climate-related events, discussions and campaigns in stories from more than 1,800 English-language news sources. Thus far it has identified more than 35,000 stories about climate change published in various news media this year. Users are able to identify news coverage of trending topics, people and companies.

“It is intended to serve and encourage sustainability initiatives across the global community of professionals” said Thomson Reuters CEO James Smith.

The site seeks to highlight and understand changes in interest levels and examine the appearance and impact of major climate-related events, discussions and campaigns across news media. The launch was timed to coincide with the UN Climate Summit held in New York on Tuesday.

Data scientists at Global Pulse, an initiative of United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, helped Thomson Reuters to develop the site. “A data-driven view of the changing news media coverage and focus on issues related to climate change - from renewable energy, energy efficiency, to deforestation - is a valuable resource for decision-makers seeking to make the case for climate action,” said Sara Cornish, communications and outreach consultant at Global Pulse.

“Applying analytical technologies to media coverage can help people around the globe better track and understand how conversations on climate change are playing out in the news,” said Khalid Al-Kofahi, Thomson Reuters vice president for research and development. “This is a meaningful application of our mission to provide intelligent information that helps people make informed decisions and act with confidence in a complex world. Our objective is to make the global conversation on climate change more visible, helping lead to a better, more sustainable world in which we all live.”

Reuters climate change coverage has been criticised by US watchdog Media Matters for America which said the agency had reduced coverage, and by climate change bloggers. ■