Gosia Luszczek, International YRE Director | E: gosia@fee.global
Kristina Madsen, International YRE Coordinator | E: kristina@fee.global
Do you want to raise awareness of environmental issues taking place in your neighbourhood? Are you able to inspire people to take positive action? Do you see yourself as part of the global environmental movement?
Then join the International Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) Competition 2020 by submitting an article, photo, or video that highlights an environmental issue close to your heart. The winning entries will be published internationally on Medium and on the websites of Climate Tracker and YRE!
The International YRE Competition is open to students aged 11-25 from the 42 countries running the YRE programme. Students first have to compete in the National YRE Competition in their respective country and be selected as a national winner before being sent onwards to the International Competition.
In 2019, close to 16,000 entries were submitted to national YRE competitions and 206 entries made it through to the International YRE Competition. These are really the best of the best!
For detailed information about the Competition, visit the International YRE Website.
The International YRE Competition consists of three different categories:
International YRE Competition
Open to all YRE countries and all environmentally related topics, except for the litter theme for countries participating in the Litter Less Campaign. Countries that are not participating in the Campaign can still submit entries related to the litter issue.
Litter Less Campaign
The topic of the submission must be related to litter. This category is open to countries that are involved in the Litter Less Campaign: Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Wales, Spain, Northern Ireland, Malta, France, Brazil and Ireland.
International Collaboration
Open to all YRE countries with three recommended themes: pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change that have to be linked to a chosen SDG. The submission must be in the form of one joint Article, Photo Reportage of 3-5 photos, or Video and be a collaborative work between two or more countries. Read more about this category here.
The Sustainable Development Goals through the YRE Competition
YRE is working closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote them and present case stories of initiatives that are developed by local communities and emphasize a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all. Therefore, we encourage participants to reflect on the link between their entry and one or more SDGs when choosing a topic to report on. Remember that an environmental lens is always required, also when a social or economic SDG is chosen as a topic of investigation.
Following alarming news about the need to take urgent action to save humans and the Earth, YRE suggests three priority topics for this year: Climate change, Loss of biodiversity, Pollution that have to be linked to chosen SDG(s).
New opportunity in the Photo Category
For the International YRE Competition 2020, the photo category will be organised differently from the past. The three age groups will be merged into one (11-25 years) and instead it will be possible to submit photo entries within three thematic categories:
Single photo reportage
Single photo campaign
Photo reportage consisting of 3-5 photos (new)
The photo category is by far the most popular submission type in the competition, however, telling an impactful story through one or a few photos is not an easy task! We have therefore asked our Jury members to select their favourite photo of 2019 and justify their selection to make it clear what they are looking for when assessing photos. You can see the video featuring P.J. Marcellino below.
Click here to read the specific rules for the three international photo categories. Please note that the national rules might differ - please check this with your YRE National Operator.