Are We Communicating Right on Climate Change?

By Kishor Pradhan*

With the Conference of Parties, or COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009, scheduled for early December later this year drawing near, hardly a month has passed in the recent past without one or other events related to climate change taking place — whether at the national or international levels.

In Kathmandu, for instance, there were two major South Asian gatherings on climate change in one week this month alone. One was attended by high level government representatives and the other involved youth groups. I even had the pleasure of attending a media specific international conference organised by UNESCO titled ‘Broadcast Media and Climate Change: A Public Service Remit’ in Paris, France from September 4-5.  

All these events on climate change have been organised, one after another, as I understand to make noise and prepare for the lead up to COP 15, which is fine, as there is always a process to an end and many things need to be communicated and decided in COP 15. With the euphoria of the lead up to COP 15, however, it has become necessary to ask if we are communicating right on climate change? Are we really communicating the true interest of the communities who are going to be adversely affected by climate change? Or are we just communicating agendas of one or the other vested interest groups?  

Somebody I know in the high level inter-governmental conference in Kathmandu quipped that nobody is talking about mitigation and adaptation. Instead, they are focused on just the developing countries and developed countries’ stake in the UNFCC (United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Annex 1, which lists the countries who have been identified as high emission countries and need to cut down their emission and pay for it as well. The other said that he has been hearing about glacial lake outburst floods for more than a decade. Glacial lakes have formed and ready to flood. But so little have we walked the talk. And, in the international one in Paris, many national, regional and international broadcasters excitedly talked about linking local to global issues by broadcasting these issues.  

These discourses and debates in such efforts are all fine in their own contexts and for one-way flow of information and the ingrained top-down communications of development in the traditional ways we have done and we are doing. Climate change also needs top-down flow of information and communications. The people, in general, and the communities in the rural areas (including farmers, mountain enterprisers) in particular, need to be given  the information and knowledge about the impacts of climate change so that they develop resilience to combat it and adapt themselves. They have to be made aware.  

Development is, however, a process that does not get governed and decided in Nepal or Kathmandu. Development is a long drawn process and extends beyond a local perspective to national, regional and global perspectives. What gets decided at the COP 15 is directly or indirectly going to affect development of policies and management of resources for actions on climate change in Nepal. However, whether at the COP 15 and beyond, we need a two-way flow of information and communication if we want to combat climate change.

The ‘voices’ of the rural communities have to be patiently listened to as they have already adapted to climate change and have learned how to since time immemorial. The rural communities, with their ingenious and indigenous climate change science, need to be assisted, with the help of proper communication and adequate flow of information, in matters concerning the mitigation of the problem, adaptation of knowledge, and how successful practices can be replicated. Various development players in Nepal need to aid them in communicating successfully. This is the only way we can save ourselves in Nepal and elsewhere — proper communication and complete flow of information.

*Kishor Pradhan is Nepal country representative and South Asia deputy director of Panos South Asia.