Jason Arunn Murugesu
Jason Arunn Murugesu reports for the BBC’s North East and Cumbria news team with a focus on how environmental questions play out through local politics, industry and everyday life. His coverage tracks decisions on climate and ecology at council level, explains complex environmental science in plain terms, and anchors national policy debates in specific places and institutions.
Climate pledges and council politics
A central strand of Murugesu’s work is the tightening and unravelling of local climate commitments. His reporting on Sunderland Council’s decision to rescind its climate emergency declaration follows the motion from chamber debate through to vote count, foregrounding the arguments used by councillors to justify rolling back a formal climate pledge and the practical priorities they say should replace it.
He returns to the same theme in coverage of Barnsley Council’s intention to withdraw its climate emergency declaration and related net-zero targets, setting that plan alongside similar moves by other Reform-led authorities and spelling out what is being dismantled: emergency declarations, interim climate milestones and associated resource commitments. Across these pieces he holds close to the mechanics of local democracy - who proposes motions, how they frame climate action, how many councillors back or oppose change - and uses those details to show how climate policy is being reframed on the ground.
Industrial legacies and environmental science
Murugesu also covers the scientific and industrial dimensions of environmental change in the region. His work on crab deaths near the River Tees reports on a study linking mass crustacean die-offs to pyridine pollution, contrasting those findings with an earlier government report and giving readers a clear sense of why scientists dispute the official explanation.
In coverage of a planned “community forest” for Tees Valley he describes how large-scale tree planting is being used as a tool for regeneration and climate resilience, outlining timelines, funding and the mix of public and charitable partners involved. He has reported on central government funding for plutonium disposal, treating nuclear waste not only as a technical issue but as a question of long-term stewardship, cost and risk management.
This strand of his portfolio shows a reporter comfortable with scientific language and regulation, translating specialist documents and studies into concise narratives about pollution, land use and environmental infrastructure.
Community, heritage and place-based stories
Alongside overtly environmental pieces, Murugesu writes about heritage and community life in ways that often intersect with landscape and conservation. His articles on a restored miners’ banner being returned to a primary school trace the history of the object, the craft of its repair and its symbolic role in a former pit village. Coverage of the vast Christmas tree at Cragside - including a record-setting 147ft specimen and the practical task of decorating what is described as the world’s tallest Christmas tree - combines engineering detail, volunteer effort and the spectacle of a landmark set within a historic estate and woodland.
These stories show a reporter attentive to how local identity is expressed through physical artefacts and places, and how museums, schools and heritage sites are woven into the broader story of the region’s environment.
Public services, justice and local institutions
Murugesu’s beat extends into public services and justice when these intersect with the lives of people in the North East and Cumbria. His reporting on women kept in detention despite suicide concerns focuses on decisions made by authorities, the warnings raised by professionals and advocates, and the consequences for individuals held in immigration or detention systems. Coverage of a “doomed” glass centre’s search for revenue consultants examines the financial pressures on a cultural institution, tracing efforts to secure new income streams as part of a wider struggle over funding, access and the fate of local landmarks.
Even in pieces that are not explicitly labelled as environmental, he pays attention to how institutions - councils, centres, detention facilities - shape the built and social environment and how policy choices affect vulnerable groups and public spaces.
Across these strands, Murugesu’s work is defined by its combination of granular local detail and clear thematic lines. He repeatedly returns to how climate action is adopted, diluted or repealed by councils, how industrial and scientific developments affect ecosystems, and how community institutions adapt under financial and political pressure.
For a story rooted in environmental policy, scientific findings, or the changing fabric of a specific place in the North East and Cumbria, his reporting shows a consistent interest in concrete decisions, named institutions and their impact on people and landscapes.
4 more environment journalists.
Abby Wallace
Abby Wallace covers where energy, climate and politics meet, with a focus on how net zero, power markets and extreme weather affect people and institutions. She is an energy and climate reporter at POLITICO, covering U.K. energy policy, climate targets and the transition from fossil fuels. Her subjects include government and opposition debates over net zero, decarbonization, support schemes, infrastructure, public spending and climate adaptation. She also reports on energy companies, household bills, labor standards, supply chains and corporate accountability. Her work connects technical policy choices to jobs, competitiveness, public services and voter sentiment. She uses polling, expert voices and political analysis to examine public attitudes and government response to extreme weather. Before POLITICO, she worked on the companies desk at the Financial Times and the business news desk at Insider. She has also freelanced on politics, business and climate.
Adam Fulton
Adam Fulton is a digital news producer focused on fast-moving global stories where environment, conflict and politics meet. He works on the Guardian’s Australian operation, using rolling live blogs to cover geopolitical crises, climate-linked disasters and wars with clear structure and context. His Middle East coverage, including the Gaza peace plan, tracks tension between political messaging and on-the-ground realities, tying leaders’ statements to military movements, diplomatic reactions and humanitarian reports. His disaster reporting, such as on Nepal–Tibet floods, links rising tolls and missing people to infrastructure damage, rescue strain and cascading environmental threats. His Ukraine war blogs treat resource scarcity, especially water and energy, as strategic factors and track how infrastructure damage shapes the conflict. A former entertainment and arts reporter and senior editor at major Australian newspapers, he applies careful pacing and narrative arcs to collaborative, time-stamped live coverage.
Alec Luhn
Alec Luhn is an environment reporter whose work follows climate change at its extremes, frontiers and human consequences, often reporting directly from places where warming, instability and displacement intersect. He covers climate, conflict and migration, showing how abstract climate trends turn into risks for communities, infrastructure, health and preparedness. He reports for New Scientist on climate breakdown, extreme events, El Niño, limits of models, melting glaciers, warming seas and adaptation to heat, mixing scientific explanation with lived experience. A defining strand of his work is reporting from remote icy and mountainous regions on Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost, polar bears, pollution and fragile ecosystems. He has a long record on conflict and security, including the Skripal poisoning case. His reporting appears in New Scientist and major international outlets, with work across print, digital, audio and television and recognition from climate and journalism awards.
Amy Lyall
Amy Lyall is a regular contributor to The Connexion, and her work stands out for turning French rules, services and the built environment into clear, usable advice for everyday readers. She covers housing, energy use, resident obligations and the practical steps behind things like getting air-conditioning approved for flats. Her beat also includes national and local schemes, insurance and legal conditions for lending a car, mobile network coverage, mosquito-borne diseases, water filters, fruit harvests and emergency drones with defibrillators. She writes news, practical guides and magazine-style features, using plain language to explain technical topics and official systems. She also writes explainers on French words and phrases and occasional culture pieces on unusual sites such as Maison Picassiette.