Farewell to Climate Nexus, an inbox stalwart

Last week, Zack Colman of Politico reported that Climate Nexus, a climate communications firm that’s been a stalwart of the climate news landscape since 2011, will shut down on June 21. The Water Hub, a Climate Nexus project that focuses on water issues, will be splitting off into its own organization, but many of the firm’s 34 staff members will be out of jobs.

This also means that climate journalists around the world will be left without what has often been a vital source of information — especially during the United Nations’ annual climate conference (also known as COP), when Climate Nexus director Shravya Jain-Conti would send out regular email updates that achieved a frankly perfect mix of humor and information.

“It did more than almost any organization to promote basic climate science awareness among journalists, during a time when the role of climate in newsrooms expanded dramatically and evolved far beyond the stale, misleading scientist-vs-denier framing that used to be a hallmark of mainstream media coverage,” Tim McDonnell wrote in Semafor Wednesday. But, he continued, “The group had struggled to fill a funding gap left after the drying-up of funding from the MacArthur Foundation, which had been its main financial backer, and other donors.”

Climate Nexus was a rarity: A communications group that had no client but was instead dedicated to information for information’s sake. I’m going to miss it, and I’m not the only one:

many other things to say about this but i genuinely dont know how any climate reporters are going to cover COP this year https://t.co/gmdONqGLDW

— molly taft (@mollytaft) May 31, 2024

This is really a shame, @Shravya_ & co. were really so incredibly helpful for climate journalists. I literally don’t know how we’re going to survive a COP without them… https://t.co/ZwiTB3cjnN

— Tim McDonnell (@timmcdonnell) June 3, 2024

So disappointing. As a director of media strategy there years ago, Nexus played a critical and unique role in so many key climate moments. Hope fiscally sponsored projects in the climate space do a better job prioritizing org health. Too many don’t. Can’t afford more of this. https://t.co/IGcUzlpYbw

— Dr. Michael Shank (@Michael_Shank) May 31, 2024

To the many donors who understood the importance of unbranded climate communications (the issue is the client), many thanks for your foresight in helping to create/support @ClimateNexus To @jeffnesbit and the many amazing people who worked there, thank you. What a loss. https://t.co/wIFvmMOwzA

— Kalee Kreider (@kaleekreider) May 31, 2024

This is a huge loss. @jeffnesbit did an incredible job building Climate Nexus, but left a couple of years ago.
They’ve been great leaders and very helpful with the work I’ve done. Lots of really good climate folks will be looking for new positions. https://t.co/zjdoQR13SH

— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) June 1, 2024

Thank you all for the outpouring of support for us. And not to make light of the tremendous financial and career instability my colleagues and I will soon experience but my favorite sticky note speaks for me today pic.twitter.com/zWG1gBTIvW

— Shravya Jain-Conti (@Shravya_) June 1, 2024