BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– The media is pivotal to climate action!
These sentiments were shared by the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Moses Vilakati, during the certification ceremony at the capacity development workshop for communication officers, media and journalists on climate change and Eswatini’s NDC.
NDC is the acronym for Nationally Determined Contributions.
The Minister said Eswatini was facing the challenges of unsustainable natural resource extraction, deforestation, erosion, land degradation and impacts of climate change, which is affecting our environment adversely.
“Furthermore, Climate Change is the greatest challenge we as humanity have faced. We need to build resilience in our country, in all our sectors and safeguard the livelihoods, ecosystems and health of our people.
“In this regard, it becomes all our duty, regardless of which sector we come from to take climate action. We have to educate and create awareness amongst all EmaSwati about Climate Change.
“The media has a central role in educating and informing citizens on climate change. I’m happy that through NDC Funding, media and communications specialists in Eswatini are being trained on how to report on climate change,” said Vilakati.
He further said that media coverage of climate change has an effect on public opinion on climate change, saying they could mobilise residents to take climate action wherever they are and it can be something as small as planting a tree.
“You have been observing temperature increases, heat waves, wildfires and droughts. You have also been observing heavy rainfall, flooding and storms. Do you link these extreme weather events to climate change?
“With heavy rainfall, we are finding our rivers flooding. People are building houses in areas that are prone to floods, or building on wetlands. With the Durban floods, we saw that 450 people died and 40 000 people had to be displaced. With Cyclone Eloise, we also saw damage in Eswatini, people’s houses were damaged and roads were damaged.
“Part of this is because of climate change-induced extreme weather events. While part of this is because of unplanned settlements, poor construction and construction in ecologically sensitive areas. As the media, you can highlight these and educate people to avoid investing in risky areas,” said the Minister.
The Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs further said it was the media’s responsibility to build trust and combat dis-information on climate science.
“I hope this training has helped you with understanding climate change better and also good practices on reporting for climate change. “Congratulations to all who have participated! As you receive this certificate of participation in training, I encourage you to continue learning about climate change. New ideas, new science and new information keeps coming. Keep in touch with the Conference of Parties and what is happening globally. Relate those to what we are doing in Eswatini. Let our media be the best climate reporters in the region.”
