Eighteen journalists from around the world flew into Bonn, in Germany’s picturesque Rhineland, in early June for a media workshop during the latest round of international negotiations on tackling global warming under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The workshop was organised by the ComPlus Alliance for Sustainable Development and the UNFCCC to give journalists from developing countries the chance to report on and deepen their understanding of the complex processes involved in seeking global agreement on how to fight the growing threat of climate change.
With the next ministerial level meeting (CoP 16) scheduled for Cancun, Mexico, in November, the largest element of the group came from Latin America and the Caribbean. They were joined by journalists from China, India, South Africa, Zambia, Southern Sudan, Nigeria, Thailand and the Philippines. The working workshop was led by John Hay, UNFCCC Media Liaison chief, with a Spanish-speaking consultant trainer from Thomson Reuters Foundation helping journalists to develop their stories day by day.
The journalists were all experienced, several were science or environmental specialists and a number had attended similar workshops last year, including one at the failed Copenhagen CoP 15. For a few it was all brand new. The plan is for this latest group to go forward to Cancun for an extended workshop while they cover CoP 16.
The Bonn workshop programme consisted of two or three set events each day – such as a presentation on the outlook for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and on prospects for the development of wind energy worldwide – and a regular afternoon “interpretation” session, when journalists could ask questions on the often labyrinthine procedural, scientific and political ramifications of the day’s negotiations and marvel at the lucid and brilliantly clear explanations of John Hay.
Otherwise they were free to sit in on any open plenary negotiating sessions, choose between dozens of briefings and press conferences offered by regional or specialist environmental organisations or try to search out their own country delegates in the packed corridors of Bonn’s cavernous Hotel Maritim before compiling and filing their stories.
It was a tough week for working journalists as progress in the negotiations was slight, fragmented and often bewilderingly technical. Both outgoing UN Climate Change chief Yvo de Boer and his successor, Christiana Figueres from Costa Rica, made clear more than once that a full global treaty was very unlikely to be reached in Cancun. But the poisonous atmosphere of Copenhagen was lifted, a level of trust between industrialised and developing countries seemed to be restored and delegates reported some progress in areas such as transfer of technology and financial aid to developing countries to help them adapt to climate change.
All the workshop journalists – experienced or climate change debutants – found the week very useful in broadening their understanding of what is an immensely complicated but supremely important issue. And all are looking forward to what seems sure to be another tough session in Cancun.
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