Four of the Poznan journalism fellows, including Faleiros, are alums of the Bali program and will help mentor the new group while also doing their own reporting. The thirty-year-old Faleiros writes for O Eco online, a Brazilian environmental news agency, covering issues such as tropical forest conservation and biofuel production.

It was during the Bali fellowship that “the whole issue of deforestation emissions as a global problem became much clearer to me,” Faleiros, who recently moved to England, wrote in an e-mail. Experts estimate that deforestation in tropical countries such as Brazil contributes to as much as one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Faleiros reported and blogged from Bali (in Portuguese and English) and in Poznan expects to “cover the whole negotiations, write the hard news everyday. But what I really want is to come out with good material about forest governance. I will take the opportunity to interview as much people as I can.”

Poznan will launch a tough year of international climate negotiations amongst countries big and small as the U.N. struggles to meet its daunting deadline. Shanahan said that the Climate Change Media Partnership hopes to continue its support, networking current fellows and sending another contingent to the 2009 Copenhagen climate change summit. He is also organizing a panel on climate change coverage in developing countries for the World Conference of Science Journalists in London next July.

Cristine Russell is a CJR contributing editor and the president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a former Shorenstein Center fellow and Washington Post reporter.