19/09/2021
West African Journalists Association (WAJA) 17 September 2021 Press Release
WAJA and Partner Launch Climate Change Reporting Project
The launch has taken place of a climate change reporting project under the auspices of The West African Journalists Association (WAJA) in partnership with the Mano River Union Natural Resources Rights and Governance Platform (MRU-CSO Platform).
The MRU-CSO Platform is a network of grassroots environmental, land and human rights defenders as well as indigenous communities affected by the operations of governments and multinational corporations in West Africa.
Thirteen journalists, selected by WAJA affiliate unions in thirteen West African countries are participating in the reporting project, which seeks to elevate the impact of the human sufferings the Climate Crisis is having on West Africa and the Sahel and how the people are Adapting.
The two sub-regional organizations are keen on telling the African story to the rest of the world about the scale of the climate emergency, especially on people at the frontline of the crisis in West Africa.
Speaking from the United States at the virtual launch, a member of the Steering Committee of the MRU-CSO Platform, award-winning environmental defender, Alfred Lahai Gbabai Brownell said, even though Africa is the least emitter of greenhouse gases, it is the continent most vulnerable and hardest hit by the climate crisis.
Atty. Brownell indicated that though Africa is the frontline of the climate crisis, “rarely do you hear about the climate phenomenon that is ravishing the continent such as extreme droughts, insect pest infestations, forest fires, crop failures, erratic rain falls, climate induced migration; climate induced conflicts between states and between communities, coastal erosion forest cover lost and deforestation among others…”
For example, according to Brownell, the global news media is dominated by forest fires in Europe and the United States, but Africa accounts for about 70% of the total area burned by wildfires worldwide".
It is also worth mentioning that Africa is the lowest emitter of greenhouse gas globally, accounting for only 3.8% of the total emission, nonetheless “frontline communities from farmers, to herders and artisanal fishing, folks are paying a price for something that they did not do," Brownell said. Adding, "The world needs to hear the voices of especially those communities that would not be represented in Glasgow for COP 26.”
Earlier, the President of WAJA, Peter Quaqua said the project is one more opportunity for journalists in the region to demonstrate that they have the capacity to present the African narrative. “If we don’t tell our own stories, others will do, and there’s a chance that it might not be the whole story,” Mr. Quaqua told the journalists.
The Journalist will research and write two articles each, of not less than one thousand five hundred words and then produce a video documentary of not more than five minutes on the human sufferings of those communities in West Africa and the Sahel are grappling with.
The project runs for two months ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in the United Kingdom from 1 to 12 November. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, under the presidency of the UK.
Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, countries committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the biggest polluters have so far remain noncommittal.
WAJA represents the sixteen journalist associations/unions in West Africa. For further inquiry, contact: [email protected] +231886529611
