Press ReleasesFrom China to South Africa, Reporters Investigate Local Impacts of Climate Change
(March 31, 2008) As a result of support and mentoring in covering climate change issues, reporters from the Philippines, the Caribbean, China, Uganda and South Africa have produced five in-depth new stories about issues affecting their local environment. The reporters wrote these articles as a result of fellowships awarded by the Climate Change Media Partnership – a collaboration of Panos, Internews and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) that supports journalists to investigate climate change issues. As part of the program, former BBC environmental correspondent Alex Kirby provided advice and mentoring to the journalists as they researched and wrote their articles. “For many journalists, climate change is itself a confusing story, and a meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change doubly so,” said Kirby. “I was really encouraged by the way all the Climate Fellows developed their knowledge of the science, diplomacy and politics involved, and managed to incorporate them into perceptive features that will have helped their readers at home, as well as the wider web readership, to understand more about this hugely important subject.” Imelda Abano, a freelance reporter from the Northern Philippines, wrote about the Philippine government’s push to get farmers to grow crops for biofuels and the concern that this effort might create food shortages as farming lands are used up to grow biofuel crops. (See an interview with Imelda Abano on YouTube.) In the Caribbean, people who make a living from the tourist industry—which employs several hundred thousand people—are concerned by rising sea levels and stronger hurricanes due to climate change. Journalist Petre Williams’ article looks at measures being considered by the government and other organizations.
In her article about the Batwa communities in Uganda, journalist Salome Alweny describes how the Batwa (Pygmies) were evicted from their land when the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest became a national park and world heritage site in 1992 to protect the 350 endangered mountain gorillas within its confines. The Batwa, now scattered in the mountainous west and south of the country, are the population most affected by increasingly harsh weather conditions in Uganda. “Can South Africa’s solar energy ventures compete with its vast supply of cheap coal?” asks environment reporter Yolandi Groenewald. She explores this issue in an article examining the cost effectiveness of building solar power plants in an economy where 90 per cent of power is generated by coal. Chinese reporter Hujun Li says that at the United Nations climate summit in Bali in December 2007, China for the first time proposed substantive efforts to reduce emissions by developing nations, while asking developed nations to supply the technology for that. Before leaving Bali, the Chinese delegation spent time discussing the need for better communication with foreign media and the importance of providing accurate information. In his article, Hujun wrote, “So journalists covering the next summit, in the Polish city of Poznan, may find the Chinese delegation more open to them, and more convinced of the need to explain their country’s position at every stage of the talks.” According to Alex Kirby, “All the Fellows succeeded in bringing a fairly technical subject to vivid life in a very accessible way — so congratulations to them, and to the Media Partnership for enabling them to be at the Bali conference.” The Climate Change Fellowship program was made possible by support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Open Society Foundation’s Network Media Program, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, the Marisla Foundation, Oxfam NOVIB, the Commonwealth Foundation and IDRC. Food versus fuel in the Philippines, by Imelda V. Abano, the Philippines Caribbean tourist trade counts the cost of climate change, by Petre Williams, the Caribbean Landless and exposed to the elements, by Salome Alweny, Uganda Will South Africa lead the solar energy revolution? by Yolandi Groenewald, South Africa What Bali means for China, by Hujun Li, China More Information: Climate Change Media Partnership |
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