DeSmog has won two awards for its work exposing the role of the advertising and public relations industry in delaying climate action at the 2025 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards.

Investigative reporter TJ Jordan was named an Emerging Journalist of the Year for coverage including his story revealing how a British-owned PR firm hired social influencers to help drown out pipeline protests in Uganda. Judges also noted his analysis showing that most winners of a prestigious green advertising award worked for fossil fuel companies.

“It takes a lot of courage to take on big companies like this,” the judges said in their commendation, let alone to do so this early in one’s career and with the narrative flare Jordan brings to his work. “Consistently superb…TJ’s stories are smart, original, and important.”

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.

Drawing on scores of U.S. Department of Justice filings, Lowenstein revealed how two dozen firms in the U.S. and Europe earned tens of millions of dollars by presenting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship Neom futuristic city as a symbol of his commitment to sustainability. Lowenstein’s story demonstrated how the project serves as an asset in a Saudi campaign to prolong demand for fossil fuels.

“Well-conceived and sharply executed,” this story is a critical reminder, judges said, of the immense resources that powerful actors will bring to bear to burnish their green credentials and hijack global climate change discourse.

Now in its fifth year, the CCNow awards programme said it received more than 1,200 entries, from journalists in nearly 50 countries and representing every corner of the climate journalism profession. The winners were picked by a judging panel of 118 journalists from 32 countries and territories, many of whom are past winners and finalists themselves. [To see all the winners, please click here.]

“This year’s winners hail from around the world, from outlets big and small, and, together, their work represents the leading edge of climate storytelling,” 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.” 

To read DeSmog’s coverage of the advertising and public relations industry, please click here. Profiles of companies featuring in the series can be accessed here.