Energy Community Summer School 2023: Energy Journalism Workshop

The Summer School is known for its dedication to fostering multiple perspectives. From the intricate realms of technology, economics, and law to our specialized program on energy journalism in Southeast Europe, we worked for a full week to tackle the complex challenges and exciting opportunities that lie within the domain of energy. Like the previous editions, this year's program also featured several thematic blocs, including Social Sunday, Technical Monday, Economic Tuesday, and more.

As usual, the last day was dedicated solely to energy journalism because we firmly believe that the energy transition requires a holistic approach, one of them being the promotion of the energy transition and creating positive narratives that build social acceptance for the transition. We try to advance this by supporting journalists already working in or gaining new interest in reporting on energy-related topics and offering this training program.  

The Energy Journalism Workshop for this edition was mentored by Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, currently working as an energy and environment correspondent in Berlin for the Brussels-based EURACTIV. In his work, he focuses on covering Germany's continued energy transition as well as the EU's fledgling hydrogen boom. With him, we've covered several topics, such as:

• Climate change and the energy transition: a story for everyone
• What's driving the change? The scientific, economic and social cases for decarbonization
• Journalism in the climate and energy space: a working life
• Decarbonisation for 1.5°C – what does that entail?
• Disinformation and how not to fall for it
• Storytelling on climate change and the energy transition: data, investigations, photo essays, social media

Through engaging discussions, practical tasks, and collaborative learning, we created new skills and new networks that will undoubtedly shape future journalistic endeavors.

As we say goodbye to another year of Summer School, we evaluate the invaluable lessons we've learned. This experience has provided us and our participants with a fresh perspective to continue our dedicated reporting on the region's ever-evolving landscape of energy transition.

The Energy Community Summer School has once again proven to be the place to exchange for ambitious young professionals from different fields, and we are glad to be a part of it.