Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan is ranked the 8th most vulnerable country in the world to the risks and associated costs of climate change, yet the issue receives relatively little attention in the national media. Moreover, climate change tends to be reported as a standalone issue, often overlooking its impact on agriculture (23% of GDP), the private sector, health and security – and the opportunities for ‘green growth’.

A seminar was held in Karachi to intensively build media skills on reporting on climate change finance in Pakistan. In the seminar, a CPNE and UNDP handbook, Climate Smart Reporting: A Handbook for Journalists & Communication Professionals, was launched. The guidebook launch was under an initiative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called Strengthening the Governance of Climate Change Finance. Under this programme the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) is providing editors and journalists in Pakistan with the tools and support to mainstream climate change issues and finance into everyday reporting of economic, social and other issues in the country.

Several editors, journalists and media persons attended the seminar. On this occasion, the Provincial Minister for Livestock & Fisheries and Environment, Climate change & Coastal Development Department, Mr. Muhammad Ali Malkani and Secretary Environment & Protection, Mr. Bakaullah Unnar briefed the seminar participants about several climate change sensitive initiatives of the provincial department. They also expressed and highlighted the need of effective and efficient reporting on the subject for brining awareness and sensitizations among the masses.

Speaking at the event Glenn Hodes, Climate Policy & Finance Specialist of UNDP said “Pakistan’s poverty rate may be declining and the country is working towards achieving development goals set out by Agenda 2030, but large challenges, such as climate change, threaten to undermine decades of development progress.

Dr Jabbar Khattak, chairman Project & Programme of CPNE said at the event “the media in Pakistan has a central role to play when it comes to information on climate change finance – that’s why it is so important to gather journalists and editors together to discuss issues that are going to become increasingly prominent and the way the media should respond to them. With a healthy, robust media you have a group that can play a role for the population as an educator, an early warning system, a form of dialogue between government and the population, and a way to make clear where public funds are going and who they are designed to help.”

The workshop is the first of three to be held in Pakistan with two others planned for Islamabad and Lahore. Work between CPNE and UNDP is ongoing and the organisations are also holding a competition on climate reporting in Pakistan closing at the end of this month.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st, 2017.