UNESCO International Conference on Broadcast Media and Climate Change

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HIGHLIGHT

COPEAM Secretary General took part in the session “Making climate knowledge accessible: Networks and available resources” of the "Broadcast & Climate Change" UNESCOConference.

The session was focused on the opportunities that international partnerships and exchanges can create for broadcasters to improve their capacity of delivering information about climate and environment. Participants presented their experience in this area and outlined the possibility of sharing relevant contacts, knowledge, and rights free content on climate change.

See the Conference programme
Watch the Conference webcast page
Read Ms. Paradisi’s speech

The Conference led to the creation of the Paris Declaration on Broadcast and Climate Change. The Declaration stresses the role of the media in fighting climate change and its impacts through a more active, strategic and concerted engagement in the climate change debate. It reflects a consensus on the importance of media in stimulating policy debate and mobilising knowledge to empower societies to make informed decisions on options for mitigation and adaptation.

More info about the "Broadcast & Climate Change" Conference:
UNESCO, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),has brought national broadcasters from both developing and developed countries together with regional broadcasting unions, international broadcasting associations, scientific organizations and climate-related agencies to discuss major perspectives on climate change and the ways in which the public debate on climate change mitigation and adaptation can be facilitated.

Additionally, the conference intended to serve as a platform for regional and international collaboration to offer and generate solutions to the most urgent questions and the next steps to take concerning climate change and broadcast media, particularly in the developing countries. Such collaboration will empower national broadcasters to fulfill their role – the public service remit – in making climate change and related mitigation and adaptation options better understood by audiences.

There is a consensus in most spheres that the challenges of climate change are real. The magnitude of impacts of climate change is huge and permeates every aspect of social and economic development. Nevertheless do the majority of people take practical actions to avoid the potential cataclysm? Broadcast media has a decisive role to play in providing people with information that would enable and encourage them to take responsibility for their environment and future generations.

Conference's participants assessed the needs and capacities of broadcasters to disseminate content on this subject, and explored ways of improving access to quality information on the subject, as well as potential modalities for making resources and training programmes available to media professionals. The aim is to increase the quantity of programmes on climate, enhance the quality of these programmes and ensure their permanence in the broadcast media.



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