Community-Led and Creative Climate Radio is on Air

Our attention swivels these days to the south of Morocco. Gliding through the palm trees, oases and olive groves of Marrakesh, we plunge into the bustling heart of the COP22 village at Bab Ighli and sway on the waves and young voices of Climate Radio.

It seems only natural that something creative, appealing and engaging would come out of the participation of civil society organizations from around the world – a total of 280 according to the COP22 website - in the 22nd Conference of Parties at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) on November 7-18, 2016. We are growing used to youth taking on the torch of development and advancement of climate actions and working together with decision-makers at a local and a global scale. One just has to look back at the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Climate Radio is a one of a kind, creative initiative led by community media. It is the first community broadcasting channel on Moroccan FM waves, and it will be officially launched today, November 10, 2016 at 5:30 pm GMT on the site of COP 22, targeting world listeners beyond the 20k+ COP22 delegates.

Climate Radio is a temporary FM radio station broadcasting locally from Marrakesh, via a license granted exceptionally, and for the first time, from and to civil society organizations (CSOs) by the Morocco audiovisual regulator via the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH).

18 young CSO journalists and reporters from Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Jordan, Israel, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, and Tunisia will work independently to cover and broadcast stories, news and interviews around COP22 – the process of the conference, the discussions, the solutions, etc. They were all selected through an open call and have been trained on the basis of UNESCO’s e-learning manuals, tools and syllabi such as Climate Change in Africa: A Guidebook for Journalists, Teaching Journalism for Sustainable Development, and more.

And to foster the spirit of teamwork, cooperation and exchange, Climate Radio will also reach out to and collaborate with other journalists from developing countries covering the event on site.

In 6 days, from November 12 to 18, young journalists will spend 4 hours per day producing written and broadcast content in Arabic, Amazigh, English, French and Spanish.

The radio shows will be broadcast locally on 100.1 FM, streamed online on http://www.climateradio.net/ and shared in Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC) so that community radios around the world can rebroadcast them.

The Climate Radio initiative aims at providing relevant and quality content about COP22 to community radio stations around the world. The initiative also aims at contributing to the achievement of Target 10 of Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (i.e., Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms), promoting the role of radio for SDGs in addressing climate change, and promoting the role of community media in setting platforms for  freedom of expression and of the press following UNESCO’s expertise and values.