Professional history

In 2016 Agnes Walton graduated with a masters in environmental science from Yale University and became a founding member of the VICE News Tonight on HBO climate desk – the first of its kind on U.S. nightly news. 

The team reported from almost every state and every continent except Antarctica, and received honorable mention for outstanding beat reporting from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2018, their investigation into PFAS contamination from military bases was a finalist for the New York Society of Professional Journalists’ investigative reporting award and in 2019, Oceans Melting Greenland received the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Silver award for feature reporting. 

Walton went on to work as a breaking news producer at VICE and then directed the documentary Amazon on Fire for VICE Investigates on HULU. In 2020, Amazon on Fire won an American Cinema Editors Eddy award, a New York Press Club Award for best television documentary and a Society of Environmental Journalists award for outstanding explanatory reporting. 

Her investigative environmental crime podcast The Crisis, about an Alabama coal company, three murders in Colombia and a bribery scandal in Birmingham, was released in 2021 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Contra Natura, the Spanish version, was nominated for a Gabo Prize and listed among the 40 best pieces of Ibero-American journalism that year. 

She won two News and Documentary Emmy Awards in 2021; for outstanding coverage of a breaking news story as part of the team behind special report American Uprising, and for outstanding newscast with the entire VNT team. 

Also in 2021, Walton directed a series of news features and an investigative documentary film about the death of teenager Cornelius Fredrick in foster care. The film was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy award in 2022. 

For New York Times Opinion Video, she has covered topics ranging from net zero emissions pledges and the Brazilian Amazon to the crisis in American teaching.

Walton currently works as the climate change and environmental journalism specialist at the Norwegian Institute for Journalism. She teaches an in-depth climate fundamentals workshop for reporters, and offers tailored courses and consultancy for media companies on a range of topics including visual climate reporting, science communication, climate data analysis, video production, and environmental storytelling. She hosts events and panels for the Institute, including the COP28 Nordic ministerial press meeting.

In summer 2024, she will be teaching the ABCs of Climate Investigations at the Stockholm School of Economics’ Summer School of Investigative Reporting in Riga, and courses in Jordan and Turkey.