The media coverage of climate change in South Africa is on the increase, although several issue requiring attention have been identified. These include

i) the fact that media coverage is mostly influenced by events such as climate conferences and disasters;

ii) a tendency to approach climate change as a beat, instead of incorporating it in other beats since the climate crisis impacts various issues, such as economics, health, politics, food security, agriculture, etc. This has often resulted in a scenario where some of the impacts of climate change are underreported;

iii) most of the reporting is found in online media and sometimes behind paywalls;and iv) although showing some improvements, there is a reliance on stories from foreign news networks, something that might suggest that the climate crisis is not of local concern. Overall climate communication by key stakeholders such as the government and the business sector is particularly inadequate. Having conducted a mapping of media coverage by 11 publications and interviewed 42 key stakeholders, this study has made several recommendations which include the training of climate journalists and the conscientization of media houses to improve reporting on the crisis. Government, in particular, has been implored to engage in climate change communication to catapult societal discourse on the subject and improve media reporting.