Climate change reporting: keep it simple

“Climate change reporting should not always be done in scientific language, but must be simplified so that the ordinary man on the streets understands what is being talked about,” Albi Modise, chief director of communications at the Department of Environmental Affairs, told Bizcommunity.com yesterday, Tuesday 4 August 2009.

Modise spoke on the sidelines of the one-day national information and consultation session on climate change held in Pretoria.

“The media should strive to raise the level of awareness but unless their reporting is done in simple language, journalists will never get their message across, which is to arm citizens to make decisions about safety,” Modise added.

Climate change? What's that?

Research shows that many people in Africa barely understand climate change vocabularies such as greenhouse gas (GNG), carbon emissions, Bali Road Map, Kyoto Protocol, adaptation, mitigation, becoming climate-friendly, Copenhagen, reduction targets, and many more.

Likewise, confusion grips many readers, viewers and listeners when they come across words such as global recession, trade deficit, consumer price index (CPI), commodities, inflation targeting, CAC, Nasdaq, All Shares, repo rate, and GDP.

Some observers are of the view that such ‘sophisticated' reporting forces many people to believe that climate change, like business report, is for the rich and the ‘very clever'.

“We should not take it for granted that even other journalists or everyone with a degree understands the meaning of these words,” Modise pointed out.

“That is why we, as the department, have undertaken to engage journalists and editors and give them an insight on issues of climate change so that they can be able to share that information with the communities.”

Media must be aggressive in fighting climate change

Before the session's main opening, an exclusive workshop was held for the media with the aim, Modise said, of helping journalists to demystify and unpack the complex issues of climate change.

“There is a need for the media to play an aggressive role in fighting climate change, and government will ensure that it engages community media, NGOs, activists and other stakeholders to increase contribution in drawing attention on this issue.”

Most of the discussion held yesterday was meant to unpack SA's resolutions towards the UN Summit on climate change due to take place in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As things stand, 20 countries emit 90% of the world's GHG, including seven developing countries - China, India, Brazil and SA (1.4%). Nigeria is listed among the top 25.

SA's expectations from Copenhagen is that the deal must be fair, inclusive and effective, have a balance between adaptation and mitigation, and a financial commitment of at least 1% (US$400bn) of global GDP, which will enable developing countries to undertake adaptation and mitigation programmes at the scale that is needed.