In early morning of April 24 this year, two back-to-back earthquakesof magnitudes 5.2 and 4.3 struckcentral Nepal, includingKathmandu, just one day before the fourth anniversary of the devastating2015 Gorkha earthquake that claimed nearly 9,000 lives, left more than 22,000 injured and destroyedsome 600,000 structures. According to the Nepal National Seismology Centre, the two recent tremors were aftershocks of the 2015 quake.Although there have not been any reports of damages yet, the tremors are a chilling reminder of the importance of disaster response and preparedness in the country.

Nepal is one of many disaster-prone countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also vulnerable to climate change and global warming. Although the country makes negligible contributions to global carbon emissions, it is one of the most affected by climate change. Due to global warming, the Himalayan glaciers are melting and unleashing a series of tragedies, including avalanches, floods, landslides and drought. 

Asthe country is recovering slowly from earthquakes, a high level Media Summitorganised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and hosted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology,took place on 25-26 April 2019 in Kathmandu, with a focus on climate action and disaster preparedness. Under the theme ‘Media Solutions for Sustainable Future: Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities’, the summit brought together nearly 300 broadcasters, political leaders, representatives of UN agencies, NGOs, scientists and journalists to discuss and develop joint practical media solutions for climate change adaptation and disaster preparedness. 

At the summit,UNESCO also launched its new handbook ‘Getting the Message Across: Reporting on Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific’andorganised a workshop to train journalists and journalism educators on climate change reporting.

‘During the presidency of Fiji at COP23, there was a lot of hype among the media to cover climate change and climate action but then there was no follow up after that,’ said Janice Singh, Director of the Human Resources of Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. ‘As one of the key players in climate change action, I believe media need to be proactive and play active role in informing the public about climate change preparedness during as well aspost-disaster’, Singh stressed further.

Customised for the Asia-Pacific region, the handbook offers a unique perspective for journalists in reporting climate change stories specific to the region, including the injustice wrought by climate change in vulnerable communities, especially involving women and girls and least-developed countries.

One of the main challenges that media face in reporting on climate change is the disconnection between the scientific community and the media. Often,relevant knowledge is available but it is not being reported or disseminated to the public. Journalists need to communicate with scientists to understand the science of climate change before they can translate it into a simple, easy-to-understand language and disseminate reports to the public. This challenge highlights the need for capacity-building of media personnel on climate as well as the need for university curricula to include climate literacy.

The role of media in disseminating clear messaging in simple language is particularly vital during early warning periods, as people’s lives depend on how fast and how clear the warnings they receive are.

Based on her experiences and lessonslearned from Nepal on reporting on disaster, Nirjana Sharma, a Programme Coordinator with UNESCO Kathmandu,said journalists were also victims affected by disasters, so the issue of safety of journalists during reporting was also important.

Climate change has particular gravity in the Nepali context. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties has met24 times, yet world energy consumption is still growing along with carbon dioxide emissions. Given that, the role of media in informing and communicating about climate change cannot be overstated. Therefore,journalists need to be trained accordingly. The science, policy and citizenry are linked together making the role of journalists indispensible in bringing to fore the issues of a changing climate that will soon blight all our lives—if effective mitigation measures are not taken immediately.

Petchot is a programme assistant for communications and information at UNESCO Bangkok.