FORTY journalists from 26 developing nations, among them Jamaica’s Petre Williams-Raynor and Neil Marks of Guyana, have been named fellows in the 2009 Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) fellowship programme.

“The 40 outstanding journalists faced stiff competition from a field of 600 applicants,” said a release from the CCMP group. “The international selection panel of CCMP staff from Internews, Panos and the International Institute for Environment and Development engaged advice from media editors and regional associations of journalists.”

Demand for the media support offered by the CCMP programme has grown sharply since its inception in 2007 when 185 journalists applied for the Bali fellowships and last year 390 applied to report on the Poznan summit.

The nine-month long fellowships includes an intensive two-week programme reporting on the historic United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the fellows coincides with the launch of the new CCMP website (www.climatemediapartnership.org), which has details of this and previous years’ fellows along with many of the climate change reports they have produced.

The website will be publishing hundreds of articles by the 2009 fellows from their own countries and international negotiations, including the Copenhagen summit where a critical year of negotiations could end with a new global deal to tackle climate change.

The CCMP programme creates the opportunity for journalists to report in depth on the negotiations and share their stories with millions of people in developing countries who might not yet understand how climate change will affect them.

As well as receiving training and mentoring at the summit, the journalists will take part in a media clinic, field trip and interview sessions with leading climate change experts and negotiators.

“Climate change presents a planetary emergency requiring a rapid global response. The media are well placed to increase social awareness as a first step towards action and change. These fellowships will give journalists in vulnerable countries the vital opportunity to engage their home audiences,” said Rod Harbinson of Panos in the release.

The CCMP fellows at the past two UN climate summits, in Indonesia and Poland, produced more than 1,000 climate change stories for media worldwide. At both summits, the CCMP formed the largest single media group, providing politically independent journalistic scrutiny of the negotiations.

“The fellowships will strengthen journalists’ skills and knowledge about climate change and provide access to world-class experts that they will stay in contact with for years to come,” said James Fahn, global director of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.

Unlike in previous years, this year’s fellows will benefit from months of support both before and after the summit. The partnership will commission print or radio features and run a regional workshop at the pre-Copenhagen climate change negotiations in Bangkok beginning in late September.

“The CCMP programme will help journalists both to prepare their coverage for Copenhagen, and to report on the implementation of what governments agree there,” said Mike Shanahan of the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Exactly 600 journalists applied for the CCMP’s 2009 Fellowships. Of the 2009 winners, 21 are men and 19 are women. In addition to Jamaica and Guyana, they come from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.

This year the programme funding consortium is led largely by a grant from EuropeAid. The CCMP is seeking additional financing to expand the number of journalists it can bring to Copenhagen.

Donors that have contributed to the CCMP to date are: the UK Department for International Development, the V Kann Rasmussen Foundation and the Germeshausen Foundation, the World Bank Institute for Sustainable Development, the Ashden Trust, the Open Society Institute, the Commonwealth Foundation, the International Development Research Centre, Oxfam Novib, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation.