The University of Sheffield has joined more than 170 international media outlets in committing to a week of coverage focused on the climate crisis.

Covering Climate Now, an initiative co-founded by The Nation and the Columbia Journalism Review, in partnership with The Guardian, aims to break the climate silence that has long prevailed within too much of the news media.

Newspapers, websites, broadcasters, journalists and institutions have come together to run a week of focused climate coverage, to begin on 16 September and culminate on 23 September, the day of the landmark UN Climate Action Summit in New York.

The University of Sheffield has pledged to increase the amount and the visibility of its climate coverage – to make it clear to its audiences that climate breakdown is the overriding story of our time. All participants in Covering Climate Now will give the climate crisis the attention and prominence scientists have long said it demands, so that the public and policymakers can make wise choices.

Throughout the week, the University of Sheffield will highlight its world-leading research and expertise on how climate breakdown is unfolding and the solutions Sheffield academics are pioneering to end greenhouse gas emissions, build a sustainable economy and restore the natural world.

The initiative comes after the launch of the Energy Institute and Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield, which bring together academics from across all disciplines to develop an affordable and clean energy future, and feed the world while restoring our environment.

The University will also demonstrate the policies and practices it has introduced to reduce its own environmental impact and empower staff and students to make more sustainable choices.

Professor Gill Valentine, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, said: “Universities are uniquely placed to respond to the global challenges we face. By bringing together academic expertise across a range of disciplines, we can help to find solutions to the greatest challenges facing humanity.

“We also educate the next generation, ensuring that those who will be most affected by the climate crisis have the skills needed to find solutions.

“At Sheffield, we’re committed to not only finding solutions to global problems, but to translating our research into real-world solutions that make our campus and city more sustainable.”