Theme: Advancing for accountability for Adaptation finance for enhanced resilience, climate justice and equity   

African Climate Change and Environment Reporting is an initiative started by PACJA set to pay homage to African journalists who have exemplarily covered issues around environmental and climate issues. The ACCER Awards Finalist Academy is a strategic plan that ensures existing, training and reward schemes remain in place and also ensure sustainability of the capacity building project. The main objectives of the awards:

• To circulate the African narrative on Climate Change in environmental discourse.
• To ensure that journalists and media houses in Africa remain properly motivated to objectively and effectively report on matters of climate change and environmental issues.
• To shine a light on best practices being employed at policy and practice in response to climate change.
• To enhance proactive media participation in African climate change discourse.
• To promote and create awareness about the opportunities existing in green investment in both public and the private sectors.

The awards were launched back in 2013. We receive hundreds of applications every year from across Africa. The process of vetting and determining the winners was a level and rigorous process and a lot of work was recognized whether or not they got an award.

Africa is realizing the impact that climate change is having on their lives and their actionable plans to mitigate and adapt to new ways of living is evidential and has been reported across the board in the various media platforms.

Conducted biennially since 2013, the African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) Awards aims to recognize and motivate outstanding journalists and media networks that use their skills, outreach and influence to simplify complex environmental-scientific conversation to expand it as a broader societal concern affecting peoples’ livelihoods, society, economies and health of the planet.

For more than a decade, the Award Scheme has incentivized thousands of journalists who have catalyzed a significant shift in climate journalism on the continent, empowering them to explore deeper narratives and uncover impactful stories that drive public engagement and policy change.

The ACCER Awards has played a pivotal role in elevating the discourse around the intersection between environment, climate action sustainable development and livelihoods, bringing to light stories of innovation, resilience, and challenges faced by diverse communities.

The initiative has helped to ensure that environmental journalism is not only about reporting occurrences, but also about analyzing the effectiveness of actions taken towards climate action and all economy-wide transition to low-carbon, net-zero future. Through tailor-made training programs, which led to the creation of a network of journalists with bigger lenses beyond environment, the ACCER Awards has enhanced the capacity of journalists and media networks to play their rightful role as vessels to articulate African narratives in global spaces, influence policy and public opinion on key African standpoints and positions in international discourse and interventions on climate change.

• Print Media
• Broadcast Media
• Investigative Journalism
• Opinion Commentary
• Use of Data in Climate Change reporting
• Digital Activists