EL PAÍS and ‘The Guardian’ lead news initiative to cover climate change

Twenty-five news organizations from around the world, led by EL PAÍS and The Guardian, have created a network to cover climate change. The Climate Publishers Network (CPN) aims to create a global pool of content to provide a resource for publishers to widen their coverage of the issue ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December.

Members of the CPN, under the auspices of the Global Editors Network, have agreed not to charge licensing fees for climate change content so that all those involved in the alliance can freely republish articles.

The founding members of the CPN, which include China Daily, Denmark’s Politiken, Egypt’s Al Ahram and Argentina’s Clarín, along with newspapers from every continent, hope to attract other publications in the run-up to the Paris summit.

In a joint press statement, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, EL PAÍS editor-in-chief Antonio Caño and Global Editors Network president Ricardo Kirschbaum said: “We very much hope that publications across the political spectrum will join us either in using some of our material or, ideally, offering their own material as well.”

Climate change is the biggest challenge contemporary society faces” EL PAÍS Editor-in-chief Antonio Caño

“Climate change is the biggest challenge contemporary society faces,” said Antonio Caño, while Alan Rusbridger described the issue as “the biggest story in the world.”

The average global temperature has increased by one degree centigrade since 1850. The Paris summit aims to reach a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, following the failure of the Copenhagen summit in 2009. “The transformation of the world is at stake,” said French President François Hollande last week at UNESCO headquarters.