DeSmog and its partners have won three awards for investigations exposing corporate tactics to delay climate action at the 2026 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards.
Geoff Dembicki, DeSmog’s global managing editor, won in the International Relations category for his story exposing how U.S. oil major ExxonMobil funded climate denial operations by the Atlas Network of free-market thinktanks across South America. The story, co-published by the Guardian, quoted copies of letters and cheques that ExxonMobil wrote to fund efforts during the 1990s intended to make developing countries “less inclined” to support climate treaties.
Judges called this story “evidence-rich, powerful,” and “an important addition to what we know about efforts by Exxon and others to muddy the waters.”
In Climate on Every Beat, DeSmog investigative reporter TJ Jordan won an award for his story revealing how advertising giant Interpublic Group (IPG) had broken its “industry-first” 2022 climate pledge through its subsequent work for Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant. The story was co-published with the Financial Times.
CCNow also cited DeSmog’s Kathryn Clare for her work on an accompanying map visualising the team of IPG agencies working to burnish Aramco’s corporate image.
CCNow said, “It’s a ‘well-sourced and important’ scoop…and Jordan lays out his voluminous evidence with impressive economy and authority; one judge called the story ‘cool as hell.’”
In the Disinformation category, CCNow cited DeSmog contributor Juliana Aguilera for an investigation she published with Brazil’s Agência Pública revealing how oil giant Petrobras had hired a squad of Gen-Z science and climate influencers to green up its image. DeSmog partnered with Agência Pública to develop an English version of the story, which included reporting by Jordan and DeSmog editor Emily J Gertz. Judges called the investigation “lively and compelling.”
“Aguilera calls on an impressive variety of sources, including influencers who took part in Petrobras’s scheme and influencers who refused to, plus scientists, journalists, and the company itself,” CCNow said.
Last year, DeSmog contributor Adam M. Lowenstein won an award in the Disinformation category for his investigation into the Western firms behind Saudi Arabia’s attempts to project a greener image, despite its role in blocking global climate action. Jordan was named an Emerging Journalist of the Year in 2025 for his climate accountability coverage of the advertising and public relations sector.
Now in its sixth year, the CCNow awards programme said it received more than 1,200 entries, from journalists in dozens of countries and representing every corner of the climate journalism profession. The winners were picked by a panel of 120 journalists from more than 30 countries and territories, many of whom are past winners and finalists themselves. [To see all the winners, please click here.]
“The winners hail from around the world, from outlets big and small, and, together, their work represents a model for journalists everywhere working to tell the biggest story of our time,” CCNow said.
Co-founded in 2019 by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine in association with the Guardian and WNYC, CCNow is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting journalists to transform how the media covers the “defining story of our time.”
