Between 80% and 89% of the world’s people want their governments to do more about climate change. This fact is the central tenet of the 89% Project for climate journalism.
Timed to coincide with Earth Day and Earth Week, the project launched in April, 2025, and will culminate in another week of focused stories in October, just before the next COP meeting in Brazil.
The 89% number matters. For one thing, it means that none of us needs to feel alone in our concern about this issue, nor need we worry that writing or talking about it will isolate us from most of those around us. It should also encourage us to press harder for action and to resist even more vigorously those who stand in the way.
With leadership from Covering Climate Now, or CCN, a nonprofit that helps journalists write about climate change, this project involves numerous partners, including Yale Climate Connections. As CCN describes it, The Guardian and Agence France-Presse (AFP) are joined by “these core partners: The Nation, Rolling Stone, Scientific American, and TIME magazines based in the US; the National Observer newspaper in Canada; the Deutsche Welle global broadcaster in Germany; the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Italy; the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan; and the multinational collaborative Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism based in Jordan.”
This introductory editorial by the founders and leaders of Covering Climate Now is a clear explanation of the project and its importance: “A silent majority of the world’s people wants stronger climate action. It’s time to wake up.” Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope, The Guardian.
A compilation of the stories published so far, many from the initial week in April and some more recent, is here. They take place in the West Bank, Jakarta, Germany, Brazil, Vietnam, the United States, Antarctica, the Philippines, Canada, Lesotho, Greece, and elsewhere. Their topics encompass public health, food, protests, windfarms, politics, tree planting, tourism, urban farms, dealing with heat, affordable housing, litigation, transportation, misinformation, and more — strong evidence, if any were needed, that climate change is anything but a narrow niche topic.
Most of these pieces, though not all, are in English. Some of the publications are free to access; others have “metered paywalls,” which means you can read a few articles for free, usually a few per month. (You may have to register to read, but there don’t seem to be any annoying consequences for doing so.)
For more information, browse the 89% Project website.
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