The Pulitzer Center is launching a special call for grant applications focusing on the COP 30, which is to be held in Brazil in November 2025. Journalists, editors, and independent media organizations are invited to submit a proposal highlighting environmental issues that are critical for the upcoming COP.

GRANT OVERVIEW
Every year, the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) convenes a global summit to assess progress and commit next steps to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling the climate crisis. The latest COP 29 in Azerbaijan focused on finance left unresolved agreements and outstanding commitments. Despite some disappointments, work and collaboration will continue this November as the climate community comes together again at the next COP in Belem, Brazil.
Central to these talks will be a focus on the pressure on the world’s threatened rainforests and ocean, the ecosystems on which local communities depend for food, income, and livelihoods. Extractive industries will continue to drive market demand for resources that come from these frontiers; policies and regulations will be manipulated to accommodate political and business interests; the rights of vulnerable people will likely be violated; and new research, innovation, and solutions will emerge to respond to challenges. And so will the demand to report these issues to the public, who will ask for greater accountability based on what journalism can reveal.
The Pulitzer Center aims to support projects that illuminate and investigate how the governance of rainforest and ocean ecosystems fits with domestic and international climate policies and actions. We hope that reports from the projects can serve as resources and catalysts for the climate community and interested members of the public as they prepare for the next round of COP discourse and negotiations.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
The Pulitzer Center is launching a special call for grant applications focusing on the COP 30, which is to be held in Brazil in November 2025. Journalists, editors, and independent media organizations are invited to submit a proposal highlighting environmental issues that are critical for the upcoming COP .
The projects should focus on rainforests and ocean ecosystems, and the industries and management around them in regions that are most impacted, such as the Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. We seek project proposals that explore the intersection of climate policies and systemic issues affecting rainforests and the ocean, as well as the impact on local communities and surrounding ecosystems. Projects should consider these questions: why the issues need to be reported, why they haven’t been addressed, and what is at stake. And, equally important, what are the solutions, who should be involved, and who should be held accountable?
The projects can investigate how regulations, or the lack and misuse of them, enable industrial operations which exacerbate climate impacts; they can track supply chains that result in the destruction of protected areas and displacement of local communities; they can examine carbon trading or blue carbon schemes and how they are linked to lowering emissions; or they can showcase how scientific innovation helps vulnerable communities reduce climate risks.
The projects should consider the voices of local and marginalized communities, and they can be cross-border investigations. We encourage projects driven by collaboration, innovation, and the use of data and technology. We look for projects with strong distribution plans with and commitment from credible local, regional, or international news outlets (print, online, broadcast, visual, radio, or a combination).
Examples of topic ideas to explore:
Note: We are NOT looking for proposals about the organizing of COP and the event itself
- Land use and large-scale agro-industry
- Indigenous rights and policies
- Carbon storage and market schemes
- Extractive industries (mineral or deep-sea mining)
- Climate change and its effects environment and workers
- Oil and gas exploration
- Cross-border timber, wildlife, and fisheries trade and supply chains
- Renewable energy
- Marine geoengineering and marine carbon dioxide removal
- The blue economy, blue carbon, and ocean finance
- Blue carbon and ecosystem value
- Industrial waste management and environmental pollution
- Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), including ocean actions
- Shipping: emissions, pollution, labor
CRITERIA FOR PROPOSALS
Proposed projects should:
- Clearly show why the proposed topic is important for COP 30 dialogues and actions.
- Be original and in-depth
- Demonstrate attention to editing, reporting, and safety standards (for example, showing throughout pre-reporting research, avoiding unnecessary travel, and implementing safety measures for journalists and communities).
- Have a strong and wide distribution with relevant target audience.
- Utilize innovative reporting techniques, such as data journalism and multimedia engagement.
- Involve collaboration. This could include local and/or Indigenous journalists, or domestic-international media partnerships.
Projects involving collaborations (such as between national and/or Indigenous journalists, or between domestic-international media partnerships) will get extra consideration, though projects by solo journalists or single media outlets are acceptable.
ELIGIBILITY
Grants are open to journalists, writers, photographers, radio and podcast producers, and filmmakers. Staff journalists and freelancers of any nationality are eligible to apply. Newsrooms or teams may also apply—the team lead should be the main applicant.
BUDGET
Range between $5,000 to $15,000, depending on project specifics. Learn more on the types of expenses the Pulitzer Center provides. Budgets can include:
- Costs for field work, like travel, lodging, and meals
- Compensation for local journalist partners or translator;
- Data analysis and visualizations
A more detailed description of the project may be added as an attachment. Applications can be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, or Bahasa Indonesia.
TIMELINE
Submission deadline: February 15, 2025
Application Timeline: Within a week of your submission, you should receive a confirmation of receipt. Successful applicants will be notified by February 28, 2025. For approved projects, half of the grant amount is generally paid just before the reporting, and the remaining is delivered upon submission of the principal material for publication or broadcast.
CONTACT
For questions on Ocean, contact Jessica Aldred at [email protected] and for Rainforest and Transparency/Governance, contact Gustavo Faleiros at [email protected] or Detty Saluling at [email protected].
