Ajit Niranjan
Ajit Niranjan links climate science, policy and hard numbers to the way extreme weather and environmental damage disrupt daily life, public services and industry across Europe. He is European environment correspondent at the Guardian, reporting on how violent heat, pollution and the energy transition test the systems people rely on, from schools and hospitals to transport networks and digital infrastructure. His work combines data reporting, scientific research and on-the-ground stories to show who pays the price when climate targets are missed and environmental rules are weak.
Extreme heat and pressure on public services
Niranjan’s reporting on extreme temperatures focuses on the strain climate change puts on core services rather than on weather alone. In one piece on searing UK heat, he shows how schools, hospitals and transport systems struggle to cope when temperatures climb, treating classrooms, wards and rail lines as frontline climate infrastructure.
He returns to heatwaves in an article on Europe’s June heatwave, using a study to show how climate breakdown tripled the death toll and drawing a direct line between rising temperatures and excess mortality.
He extends this theme of pressure on systems to coverage of severe heatwaves and destructive wildfires in countries such as France and Spain. In that work he combines eyewitness accounts and scientific context to explain how fire seasons lengthen, how services prepare, and where those preparations fail. He has also produced explainer formats on wildfires, focusing on their dangers and how prevention and adaptation can reduce the human and economic toll.
Across this strand of reporting, the through-line is clear: extreme weather is treated as a stress test for the services societies depend on, with education, health and transport woven into the climate story rather than treated as separate beats.
European green policy and corporate responsibility
Niranjan’s coverage of European climate and environment policy follows not only governments and regulators but also companies whose business models drive emissions and pollution. As European environment correspondent, he writes about EU green policy and “dirty companies,” examining how rules are made, how they are lobbied, and what they miss.
In one investigation, he reports on how US tech firms and industry organisations allegedly lobbied to hide the environmental toll of data centres, probing both corporate influence and the opacity around energy use and emissions in the digital economy.
At a major journalism festival he argues for defining the fossil fuel industry more broadly, insisting that airlines, car companies, cement producers and steel makers should be seen as part of the same system of delay and obstruction as oil and gas suppliers. That perspective runs through his reporting, which treats corporate climate responsibility as a continuum from traditional fossil fuel firms to sectors that consume vast amounts of energy and lock in demand. In another piece, he reports on Norwegian fish farms whose waste pollutes fjords with volumes equivalent to the raw sewage of millions of people, using this case to show how intensive food production can undermine environmental protections at scale.
These stories mark him out from a generic environment reporter by the way he traces environmental harm back through supply chains, lobbying and regulation rather than stopping at surface-level impacts.
Energy transition and heating Europe’s homes
A significant part of Niranjan’s body of work examines how Europe can heat homes without “cooking the planet.” He has produced a dossier on the shift to climate-friendly heating, detailing how boiler rooms are becoming a frontline of the energy transition as fossil fuel systems are replaced with cleaner technologies. In that coverage he looks at the practical realities of phasing out fossil-fuel boilers, including costs, timelines and policy incentives, and at the political resistance that slows change.
Alongside the dossier, he has written analysis and factsheets on technologies for clean home heating. One piece compares options such as heat pumps and district heating, weighing their climate impact, efficiency and fit for different types of housing. Another Q&A examines heating with hydrogen, asking whether it is a clean alternative or a pipe dream and unpacking technical, economic and climate arguments around its use in buildings. These formats show his preference for clear, structured explanations that give readers a way to navigate complex technical debates.
The focus on heating and buildings complements his work on public services, together mapping how climate targets reach into homes, schools and hospitals through pipes, boilers and grids rather than remaining abstract policy goals.
Climate impacts on landscapes and long-term risk
Niranjan also covers the slower, structural impacts of climate change on landscapes and ecosystems, using specific cases to illustrate broader trends. In a piece on Switzerland’s glaciers, he reports that the country has lost almost a fifth of its Alpine ice in just five years because of global warming, framing this as an acceleration with consequences for water supplies, natural hazards and tourism. He sets local stories like this within a wider context of climate breakdown, using figures on ice loss and temperature rise to show how quickly familiar environments are changing.
His wider environmental reporting has highlighted issues such as air quality, energy transition and public health, often connecting pollution and climate drivers to knock-on effects for communities. Across these stories he treats scientific research as a core source, translating complex findings into plain language while preserving precision.
Combined with his data work and explanatory formats, this long-view reporting reinforces the central thread of his journalism: climate change is not an isolated science topic but a force reshaping infrastructure, corporate behaviour and everyday life across Europe.
4 more education journalists.
Albert Tait
Albert Tait is Education Editor at The Telegraph, leading coverage of schools and universities as institutions whose decisions have direct consequences for staff and students. He focuses on how regulators, senior leaders and governing bodies respond when safety, standards or integrity are under scrutiny, and how those responses affect classrooms and lecture halls. His work links school inspections and teacher safety to regulatory frameworks and conditions on the ground, and he reports on incidents such as knife attacks and “Code Red” alerts with attention to immediate impact and emergency protocols. He produces multi-part investigations into university governance, including extensive reporting on Cambridge’s handling of Jason Arday’s appointment and resignation. He also covers curriculum debates such as changes in how scientists view evolution and inheritance. He began at The Telegraph as a news reporter and previously covered community news at a local paper.
Beth Kennedy
Beth Kennedy is editor at The PIE News and stands out for reporting on how UK policy, institutional strategy and new delivery models reshape international education. Her beat covers UK study visa rules, international student flows, Home Office and UCAS data, alternative study pathways, language schools, and mergers and acquisitions across the sector. She reports on the practical effects of visa changes, scholarship schemes, online and transnational education, school closures, job losses and sector consolidation. Her work is direct and data-led, with clear explanations of complex systems and a focus on what policy and market shifts mean for universities, language schools and private training organisations. She has over a decade in specialist media, including years reporting for primary healthcare professionals before joining The PIE in 2024.
Callum Clark
Callum Clark is a multimedia journalist at STV News who covers education through the lens of university finances, restructuring and their impact on students, staff and local services. He focuses on stories where cost‑saving plans, job losses and service closures reshape community life, such as Dundee University’s nursery and botanic garden closures, and sets those decisions within wider restructuring efforts. His reporting is direct and fact driven, built on official documents, statements and precise figures that show both the scale of savings targets and monthly losses, and the number of posts at risk. Clark’s background in local news and public service coverage, including mental health service reforms and redundancy schemes, shapes a methodical style that tracks formal processes while keeping the lived experience of workers, families and service users in view.
Carl Eve
Carl Eve is a crime and safeguarding reporter for Plymouth Live, known for showing how institutions respond when vulnerable people are harmed. He covers abuse, schools, social care, public safety schemes, serious violence, homicide, courts, sentencing, street crime, policing operations, protests and public order. His work has examined child abuse rings, the Vanessa George nursery abuse case, grooming gangs and failures to prosecute offenders. He also reports on night-time safety projects such as the Safe Bus and student volunteer patrols. Eve has years of experience as a specialist crime reporter, with earlier work for local papers and in documentary and radio research. He uses court files, regulatory reports, police input, direct observation and on-the-ground reporting. His clear, factual stories track investigations from first police action through trial, sentencing and institutional accountability.