11 May 2023 – Dushanbe – Tajikistan – a three-day training “Media and Climate Change: Theory and Practice” started within the 5th Central Asia Climate Change Conference (CACCC-2023).
Today, the training gathered journalists and representatives of media projects of Central Asia in an online format.
“The World Bank welcomes engaging of mass media representatives of Central Asia in the upcoming climate change conference in the region. We cannot underestimate mass media’s contribution to such initiatives, and it was important for us to ensure comprehensive participation of journalists in all sessions with their complete submersion in the conference,” Zarina Nurmukhambetova, the World Bank’s External Affairs Officer for Central Asia region, said in her opening speech.
The participants discussed the relevant climate issues and formats of its thorough coverage in the media of Central Asia.
The technical expert of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) Saltanat Zhakenova reported about activities on climate change mitigation and adaptation throughout the region. She briefly presented a concept of CACCC-2023 coming in Dushanbe. According to her, there are no platforms like CACCC in the region where countries of Central Asia exchange experiences and share their plans for combating climate change. “At CACCC, Central Asian countries report not only about current activities and its plans but, and this is important, share information on what challenges they face and respond to them,” said Saltanat Zhakenova.
Moderator of the training, media trainer and media expert Irina Chistyakova asked journalists what “climate change” have associations for them. The training participants answered in an interactive format. According to her, these associations, in combination with “climate change”, may be used as topics for journalistic publications. For example, “climate change and migration”, “climate change and glaciers melting”, and “climate change and decrease in yields”.
The participants noted that climate change associations are alarming and underlined the importance of telling solutions for dealing with climate change in their publications.
Head of Communications and Media Relations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Andrej Mahecic provided comprehensive information about IPCC. The IPCC provides policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as put forward adaptation and mitigation options.
He explained to journalists where they can get detailed information about the climate situation in Central Asia, including adaptation and mitigation, on the IPCC website.
At the end of the training, journalists participated in the interactive game of climate glossary when they matched terms to definitions.
The training was organized by the World Bank and the Regional Environmental Centre under the financial support of the PROGREEN Trust Fund.
Let’s recall that the training agenda includes
I. Online training - 11 and 12 May 2023 with experts on climate change production and multimedia project development, as well as interactive sessions with participants on online services and remote mentoring elements.
II. Training in Dushanbe, Tajikistan - 15 May 2023:
· Interactive work (mainstreaming climate change themes, specificity of CC coverage, etc.)
· Presentations by climate change experts (international, regional, country)
· Session on Mobilography
· Session-pre-session, for individual preparation of journalists for work in the field of the conference (selection and production of topics, sources of information, schedule of meetings and visits to the conference sessions).