"The awards celebrate work that sets a standard of excellence for journalists everywhere to emulate as newsrooms increase their coverage of the climate story," the consortium of over 400 media outlets said in a statement.

The 12 winners chosen from nearly 600 entries included a multimedia piece by The Guardian, which lets the audience listen to the sounds of icebergs melting in the Antarctic, and a long-form piece by ProPublica documenting migration caused by global warming.

Josh Edelson, an AFP photographer based in California who specializes in covering wildfires, won in the photography category for his series "Heart of Fire."

In the series, shot in September 2020, Edelson documented the wildfires burning in California, capturing "the overwhelming size of the inferno and its emotional impact on both firefighters and the displaced," the consortium said.

"In ten years covering wildfires in California, I've never seen anything like what this year brought," Edelson wrote in an essay that accompanies his photo series. "The new normal now seems to be that every fire season brings a new surprise."

"I am transfixed and fascinated and passionate and also humbled by the power of these events and super-driven to continue telling these stories so people can see what's going on inside the fire line," Edelson wrote.