First Annual Climate Communications Day

Journalists, bloggers, scientists and others will discuss innovative ways to communicate climate change

When scientists, journalists and academics gather in December at this year’s UNFCCC Climate Change Summit in South Africa, one question will be addressed for the first time in the setting: How can information on climate change best be communicated?

To answer that, the Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), in partnership with other organizations, will host the 1st annual Climate Communications Day as an official parallel event at the Climate Summit to be held in Durban, South Africa. A day-long forum on Dec. 1, 2011 that will bring together journalists, bloggers, press officers, academics and scientists, IT firms and other communications experts, this event is aimed at exchanging insights, lessons learned and innovative new approaches on how to spread news and information about climate change accurately and effectively.

Climate Change Communication

Climate change has been and remains a difficult topic to communicate. The science behind it is complex. The global scale and long-term nature of its impacts make it difficult to report on at the local level. Even extreme weather events, scientists say, cannot automatically be ascribed to climate change. The future consequences of climate change, although likely dire, remain shrouded in varying degrees of uncertainty.

The event will feature panel discussions featuring the world’s leading experts speaking on the latest trends in climate communications, best practices when communicating stories at the local level, training in IT tools, an exploration of how technology is being used to address climate change, an exploration of what member states can and should be doing regarding climate communications, and more.

Earth Journalism Network

 For the last seven years, Internews has been seeking to meet the challenge of communicating climate change through its Earth Journalism Network – which now includes over 1,000 journalists working to cover environmental issues for local media organizations across the globe. EJN assists local networks and individual journalists around the world through training programs, fellowships, the development of online resources and social networks, awards programs and supporting the production of thousands, of stories.

International Institute for Environment and Development

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is a global leader in sustainable development. As an independent international research organisation, IIED specializes in linking local to global. In Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East and the Pacific, they work with some of the world's most vulnerable people to ensure they have a say in the policy arenas that most closely affect them — from village councils to international conventions. Through close collaboration with partners at the grassroots, IIED makes its research and advocacy relevant to their needs and alive to their realities.

Climate Change Media Partnership

Over the last four years, Internews has teamed up with IIED and Panos to form the Climate Change Media Partnership which has sent over 150 journalists to the last four climate summits to support capacity-building activities and improved climate change coverage.

“It is time to bring all of this discussion together,” said James Fahn, executive director of EJN. “This is a unique opportunity to cross-fertilize ideas on how to engage the public on climate change. Our goal is to find effective new ways to turn this global issue into a local story that can attract everyone’s interest.”

Registration is currently full for this event. If you would like to be added to a waitlist, please contact mmcgill@internews.org.

Registration for Climate Communications Day is free but all travel expenses and COP17 registration is the responsibility of the registrant.