Climate Asia: feedback on the findings

Author: Tan Copsey, November 15 2013    This week the Climate Asia team are travelling to Warsaw where negotiators from around 190 countries are meeting to try to advance steps towards a global climate agreement.

It's the 19th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the latest opportunity for us to share the findings of our research project which paints a picture of how people are living and dealing with climate change in seven Asian countries. 

Over the past month, our team has met with media, civil society organisations, governments, businesses and academics across Asia to show them how they could know their audiences better and improve the way climate change is communicated.

We've been fascinated to see how people are responding to our findings and what they plan to use them for. 

In our research we not only found that people had noticed changes in temperature, rainfall and extreme weather, but that many were already taking action.

Saleemul Huq, Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, emphasised the importance of this focus on action: "This survey has done us a great service in providing the voices of the poor. This issue is no longer about people’s vulnerability but how they are taking action," he said.

Abetnego Tarigan from Indonesia's oldest and largest environmental advocacy group WALHI, also saw in our data an opportunity to change the conversation about climate change in his country.

Instead of just concentrating on how to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, he said the Climate Asia findings threw into focus the issue of how people adapt to changes in climate.

"I should admit, in Indonesia discussion on adaptation is limited," he said. "These research results bring us back to the fact that we should be expanding our talk beyond mitigation."

Duong Thi Thu Huong, a media expert in Vietnam, told us she was excited about the possibility of examining more of the data herself, saying:

"I can see the potential for additional data analysis in order to understand in more detail different target audiences of climate change communication in the future."

The Antenna Foundation in Nepal, meanwhile, is already planning to use the data to target and reach audiences: "The survey data is comprehensive," they told us, "and this will help prepare communication materials for targeted communities."

Our data is just the beginning of the story - by sharing it with a global audience at events such as COP2013, we hope it will inspire new opportunities to communicate with people across Asia, to inspire more action and improve people’s live as they respond and adapt to climate change.

 
Click here to access this BBC Media Action blog and related links on Climate Asia.
Image credit: BBC Media Action

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