By Faridat Salifu
As climate change increasingly intersects with public health, livelihoods and economic security, journalists have called for more accessible, evidence-based and impactful reporting to help African communities understand the crisis and respond to its effects.
The call was made during a side event organised by the Pulitzer Center at the Africa Climate Forum on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, which examined the relationship between journalism, climate action and civic engagement.
The session highlighted gaps in climate reporting across Africa, including the limited prominence given to environmental stories, difficulties accessing information and the failure to connect climate issues to people’s everyday realities.
Participants noted that while the media plays a significant role in shaping public discourse, climate stories often struggle to gain visibility, limiting public understanding of the crisis.
They urged journalists to move beyond technical explanations and explore how environmental challenges affect food security, public health, household finances, access to water and livelihoods.
The discussion also emphasised the need to communicate climate information in local languages and adapt messages to cultural realities. Traditional rulers, religious leaders, teachers and other trusted community figures were identified as critical partners in reaching wider audiences.
Participants cautioned that public engagement must go beyond disseminating information. They stressed that communities should be involved in designing interventions to ensure projects address actual needs.
An example was cited of a water facility left unused because it was sited inside a palace compound that residents could not readily access, illustrating how inadequate consultation can undermine development projects.
The session also examined why awareness does not always translate into behavioural change. Reference was made to a plastic pollution initiative where market traders were trained to make reusable bags from old T-shirts, but follow-up monitoring found many continued using plastic bags.
The experience, participants said, underscores the need for sustained engagement, practical alternatives and follow-up assessments to measure lasting impact.
There were also calls for stronger collaboration among journalists, educators, architects, public health professionals and other disciplines, with emphasis that success should be measured by impact, not just the number of activities conducted.
During the question-and-answer session, Chairman of the Environmental Media Correspondents Association of Nigeria (EMCAN), Ilyn Ellakeche Adah, highlighted the difficulties environmental journalists face in accessing information and securing interviews.
“Unfortunately, this environment sector is looked at as one of… you go to the ministry and they say we don’t have one, it’s a poor ministry,” Adah said.
He said members of the association regularly struggle to identify willing sources.
“As the chairman of this association, I have to tell you that daily I get reports from my members, ‘I want to do this report. How do I go about it? What do I do? Who do I speak to? Nobody wants to speak to me,'” he said.
“This is a major challenge in covering this sector, a major challenge and until we address this, I don’t think this conversation will ever end,” he added.
Also speaking, Premium Times reporter Abdulkarim Mojeed warned against attributing every environmental problem to climate change without sufficient evidence.
“When you go to report climate change issues as they are, you are not there to sugar-coat anything. Call a spade a spade,” Mojeed said.
He urged reporters to investigate environmental failures thoroughly and hold those responsible accountable, rather than making assumptions about causes.
Mojeed questioned whether sufficient data existed to link certain practices directly to climate change and challenged journalists to interrogate who tells Africa’s climate story, whether they understand the science, and how their reporting frames the crisis.
Using flooding and declining fish catches as examples, he cautioned against automatically presenting such developments as consequences of climate change without examining other possible causes and available evidence.
The discussion concluded with a call for climate journalism that combines scientific accuracy, accessible storytelling, community participation and accountability.
