CHIMOIO / SANTARÉM – The EU countries consume more cellulose than they produce, and this growing demand is creating new business opportunities for some while resulting in the loss of land for others. This cross-border investigation examines the land grabbing in Mozambique fuelled by the European demand for eucalyptus pulp.

LONDON / EBUBU / ELELE / BODO / OGHALE - This investigation, led by a team of journalists with diverse backgrounds, delves into Shell’s divestment strategy in the Niger Delta and its far-reaching effects on communities.

OBERHAUSEN / SKOPJE / BUCHAREST / BELGRADE - Statistics for juvenile offenders with foreign citizenship in Germany show that the number of crimes is increasing. This reporting project analyses the number of kids and juveniles who appear in the statistics with Macedonian, Serbian, and Romanian citizenship. It also demonstrates that the spectrum of crimes is broad.

TBILISI / YEREVAN / ODESA / KHERSON –  The Silent Threat of Untreated Wastewater investigates the growing public health and environmental crisis caused by untreated wastewater in Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine.

BERLIN / LONDON - The team of journalists investigated the financial ties between the fossil fuel industry and medical research. The data analysis reveals over 180 medical articles published in the last six years acknowledging funding and 1000 featuring authors affiliated with fossil fuel companies.  

NUUK — This cross-border investigation focuses on how the increasing interest in the Arctic area – especially in Greenland and in the Russian northern shores – is re-shaping the economic and political equilibrium and is impacting the environment on a global level.

MILAN / BOLOGNA / BARCELONA / DRESDEN – This investigation looked in the climate action plans of leading cities in Italy, Spain and Germany, scrutinising their use of EU funding, and identifying effective solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

DUBLIN / MADRID - AI has exploded but when its cutting edge software is stripped back, carbon intensive hardware is whirring busily behind, at a high cost to the environment. What exactly does it amount to for Europe?

ROTTERDAM - The Netherlands is a hub for Russian whitefish such as cod, and thus indirectly facilitates Russia's war chest. Millions of kilos of Russian fish arrive in the port of Velsen every year, but controls on illegal catches are seriously inadequate. 

NUMAN – On land surrounding a huge sugar refinery in Nigeria, dangerously high concentrations of heavy metals appear to have had a devastating effect on people’s lives and farming output.

AMSTERDAM / ANTWERP / IMMINGHAM / LAGOS – International oil traders continue to dump toxic waste products into road fuels sold to African countries, polluting the environment, damaging engines and causing life-changing health problems for citizens, despite the efforts of the regulators and civil society.

THE HAGUE - The Ministry of Defence is considering hiring private companies to guard the North Sea because the navy and coastguard do not have enough equipment and personnel. The decision follows research findings on Russian spying activities in the region among others investigated by Pointer KRO-NCRV and VRT NWS in cooperation with six other countries.

ROME / SOFIA / BUCHAREST – Proper recycling of PV panels can generate large quantities of raw materials crucial for the energy transition. Yet, due to the presence of harmful and toxic substances, solar waste can become extremely dangerous when it ends up in the wrong hands.

LECCE / THESSALONIKI / VLORA – This investigation uncovers critical regulatory and environmental issues surrounding the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Europe’s largest fossil fuel project which spans Italy, Albania, and Greece. 

PARIS / LONDON / STOCKHOLM – This investigation reveals how European countries have been spending the “climate finance” that they have pledged to help developing countries tackle climate change.

BAKU/ RAVENNA/ L’AQUILA – Under the pretext of reducing reliance on Russian gas, Italy and the European Union have planned to double gas imports from Azerbaijan since 2022, even as dictator Ilham Aliyev tightens his authoritarian grip and increases investments in fossil fuels.

MEXICO CITY - This investigation reveals the scary scale of industrial pollution in Mexico caused by the activities of Volkswagen, BASF, and Bayer, Germany-based companies. Legal loopholes and lax oversight allow their facilities to continue discharging toxic waste.

HELSINKI / LIMA - This investigation shows that the EU needs environmental regulations for zinc supply from other countries, in order to avoid environmental damage and health costs.

TIRANA – Albania is experiencing an unprecedented tourism surge, with over 7.5 million tourists last year, and expecting more than 10 million next year. This rapid growth is putting significant pressure on the country’s natural environment.

LJUBLJANA / SOMBOR / OSIJEK – Mura-Drava-Danube is a UNESCO-protected biosphere reserve. It spans over 300,000 ha and includes more than 700 km of connected rivers. This investigation reveals poor management practices, lack of cooperation between five national governments, and lack of conservation efforts.

PARIS - An in-depth investigation of the We Report network looked in the cockpit of the privatised airplane industry. Behind the scenes, the polluting footprint of a few rich is infinite.

WARSAW/BUCHAREST/SINALOA - Europe is facing a fentanyl crisis. In 2023, victims of this deadly substance were reported already in a few countries. The team of journalists trace the path of fentanyl from Mexico to Romania and Poland and show the complexity of the issue.

DAGESTAN / ASTRAKHAN / ATYRAU — Amid the Ukraine conflict, the Caspian Sea has gained importance for energy and trade. As Baku will host COP29 in late 2024, the world's largest inland body of water faces a severe crisis. The water levels have dropped, and the coastlines have been shifting. 

BERLIN/BELGRADE - According to the new German Supply Chain Act, all German companies are obligated to ensure that human rights are respected throughout their supply chains worldwide. This means no child labor, no forced labor, and no exploitation. But is that truly the case?

SICILY / ANTALYA – Forest wildfires have increased in scale and impact. Every year, 375,000 hectares of land in Mediterranean countries are scorched by them. The journalists tried to identify the main factors which lead to these disasters endangering entire ecosystems.

PALMA / ACI TREZZA / VENICE / MASAXLOKK / AGIA NAPA / KATAPOLA – This investigation focuses on how the EU laws have promoted industrial fishing in the Mediterranean, to the detriment of Southern European small-scale fishermen. 

GOTLAND / MONTPELLIER – Is global warming making climate conditions less favourable for grape cultivation in southern Europe and more favourable in the north? The cross-border team conducted on-site reporting in four countries to see if this is true.

ROTTERDAM/ANTWERP — This first-of-its-kind investigation shows how much fossil fuels will be produced by Dutch and Belgium oil refineries between now and the year 2050. When burned, at least 3.9 million kilotons of carbon will be released into the atmosphere - emissions that correspond to hundreds of thousands of heat-related deaths due to the effects of climate change.

BARCELONA / FAENZA  – This cross-border investigation examines the impacts of extreme weather events impacts in Catalonia (Spain), Emilia-Romagna and Campi Bisenzio (Italy), focusing on psychological effects. 

ALYTUS/OULU/TURIN- The number of homeless people in Europe has doubled since 2009. A recent report from the Feantsa states that Europe has almost 895,000 homeless people.

SKOPJE - The Macedonian grayling is a unique butterfly species which resides exclusively on the outskirts of a small Macedonian town, with no other known locations worldwide. The specimen of this rare and endangered butterfly can be purchased at low prices across Europe — how did this become possible?

BUCHAREST / PAZARDZHIK —  The green transition is not necessarily a clean one. The European frenzy for green energy projects, and the massive funds assigned for this process generated a chaotic battle for agricultural lands in Romania and Bulgaria, countries particularly vulnerable to corruption risks.  

 BERLIN/BASSANO DEL GRAPPA/LONDON/ZURICH—Baby number 12 is a global investigation into an adoption scheme that began in Switzerland in the ‘50s, and the trauma that haunt the victims today. The investigation aims to expose the responsibilities of the Swiss authorities and will ask for their action.

PARIS – Billed by the fossil fuel industry as a climate solution, dozens of planned blue hydrogen projects in Europe could consume more natural gas than a country like France, and produce emissions on a par with Denmark. These findings raise new questions over blue hydrogen’s climate impact at a pivotal moment for the industry.

ISTANBUL/PARIS/UTRECHT - The European Union has helped Turkey to deport Syrian and Afghan refugees to situations of hardship, danger and even death through a system of arrest, detention and removal that has developed over time, this investigation has found.

BERLIN/ROME- As more and more EU countries are looking into asylum agreements with Rwanda or other third countries, this investigation sheds light into what is already happening in Rwanda after the MoU signed with the UK government.

AMSTERDAM / BONN / HELSINKI / STOCKHOLM — Manure is a valuable part of the agricultural cycle but becomes a huge environmental threat when there's too much of it. The team of journalists in four countries tried to investigate the manure surplus, and discovered that related EU data is not readily available.

LISBON - As cities battle with the dual challenge of maintaining resident populations amidst rising real estate interests and overtourism, the team investigated if there are any evidence-based ways to stop or slow gentrification and other issues through public, cooperative and social housing.

DANUBE - Romania and Ukraine share a very important river — the Danube. As a transport artery, one of the mouths of the Danube started to be used at the beginning of the war for export. 

ROME/MADRID/BUCHAREST - Every year, law enforcement authorities across Europe seize millions of euros worth of properties coming from illicit activities. Land lots, apartment buildings, warehouses, luxury cars or yachts were once belonged to members of mafia groups, arms or drug traffickers and other criminal actors.

PRAGUE - One in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15 – a total of 62 million women in Europe. The Istanbul Convention, a treaty aimed at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, should help with the situation.

EU / AFRICA / MENA – Five European oil and gas majors rank among the top 10 largest polluters in Africa and the Middle East when it comes to gas flaring, reveals this investigative series. These companies include Shell, BP, ENI, TotalEnergies and Perenco, as revealed by the Environmental Investigative Forum (EIF) and the media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), Daraj Media, SourceMaterial and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism.

MILAN/ROTTERDAM - Many cities in Europe are experimenting with Citizen’s Assemblies to design stronger and more inclusive climate policies. But are these experiments effective? The team are investigating the value and flaws of the assemblies as a solution for climate policies. 

NAIVASHA - Many of the beautiful bouquets sold across European markets have a devastating environmental and human cost. In Kenya, a supplier of 40% of the European cut flower market, the floriculture industry faces accusations of having a calamitous effect on water sources, of chemical use leading to disease, and of widespread abuses of farm workers, 70% of whom are women. 

MADRID - Heat is killing thousands of people in Southern European cities but what is being done in Barcelona, Milan and Lisbon about it? In 2023, more than 45.000 people died in Europe due to heat-related causes, with the southern countries topping the list.

TIRANA / DURRES / BELGRADE / PRISTINA - Across the Balkans, particularly in Albania, a disturbing trend is emerging among organised crime figures and influencers: the ownership of exotic pets like lion and tiger cubs.

BUCHAREST - EU residents are buying 40% more clothing than a few decades ago, with less than half being collected for reuse and only 1% recycled. The investigation focused on understanding whether the alternatives to fast fashion are sustainable from an economic, social, and environmental perspective.

BRATISLAVA/PRAGUE - This investigation reveals how Ukranian women searching for accomodation are open to exploitation in online spaces.

ATHENS/FARO/AGRIGENTO – Wildfires in Europe have become more frequent and devastating. From lagging prevention and disaster response in Greece, to the mismanagement and legal loopholes that in Italy fuel arson, to the post-wildfire economy in Spain that impedes ecological restoration, to Portugal's paper industry that hinder fire management for its own financial gain, this investigation sheds light on the reasons behind these disasters. 

MATINA - For over two decades, residents near banana plantations in Costa Rica have been exposed to pesticide sprays from planes, affecting their health and environment. Despite being banned in Europe, these chemicals are still exported to Global South for use in agriculture, where they are often used by major companies like Dole Food Company and Chiquita International.

PRAGUE - PFAS, a family of extremely hazardous chemicals linked to severe health issues, have been found in drinking water and vegetables, among others all over Europe. Against all odds, local communities and researchers across Europe are acting to find solutions to PFAS contamination in their food and water.

EDINBURGH - Europe’s marine environment faces a plethora of severe threats. What are the key species in decline, and which interest groups are lobbying against marine protection laws? This investigation looks into Europe’s interconnected marine systems, and how they can be preserved.

LARISSA / JAÉN / VASLUI - Farmers are already under immense pressure due to economic strains compounded by stringent EU regulations. Now, the intensifying impacts of climate change are exacerbating these challenges, leading to insomnia, anxiety, and depression among farmers.