EU, Environment Ministry train journalists on climate change reporting

By Ojugbele Omotunde

The European Union (EU) under the auspices of the Department of Climate Change (DCC) and the Nigeria Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP) has commenced a three-day training for 36 media professionals on climate change reportage.

The training which involved 36 media professionals from the 36 states in the country kicked off on Monday in Lagos.

According to Dr. Iniobong Abiola-Awe, Director of the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment, the goal of the workshop is to improve the ability of media professionals in climate change reporting.

During the training, she advised journalists to cover climate topics responsibly and ethically noting that journalists have a rare opportunity to cover climate change realities effectively.

She equally urged journalists to approach the workshop with a dedication to excellence and expressed confidence that the knowledge they acquire will enable them to address climate change issues in their reports in a professional manner.

Dr Todd Ngara, NCCRP Team Lead, announced that the training session aimed at enhancing climate change knowledge among media professionals while also emphasizing the importance journalists place on climate change and highlighting the value they place on learning about climate change updates.

He said the NCCRP’s program on climate change is centered on knowledge distribution about climate change as well as monitoring, reporting, and verification and also that the program intends to increase journalists’ reporting and visibility of climate change effects by implementing a new curriculum from primary to secondary schools.

Ngara added that The EU-funded NCCRP aims to boost Nigeria’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction capacity to 47% by 2030, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 13 while the second workshop aims to enhance media professionals’ climate change reporting skills.