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good to see so many phases and of course although we can't see their faces there's plenty of people joining us online today as well so it's great to have you here. welcome to the event and how media and behavioral insights can address the climate crisis. it's great to be here. i am and anger with bbc news based in washington and also a senior journalist specializing in climate change reporting. just to start off in terms of the media, we climate journalists are often focusing on communities and countries and the people that are affected

around the globe by the climate crisis, so it's an honor to be here to be able to listen to everyone's stories and meet in person and hopefully virtually as well so many people representing those that are on the front lines of climate change. with every passing year and it feels like with every passing month and week we are facing ever more strongly the realities of the climate crisis in the communities and in our countries especially for those of us lucky enough to be based in the united states or the so-called global north where we are starting to feel those more and more and people around the world could tell us that's what we've been seeing for a long time. a quick story of my own the way we all begin to experience climate change, my original home in his in california in the san francisco bay area. i remember a couple of years i got a phone call from my mother and this was back in 2020 she

was going through what is now kind of the unofficial fifth season in california that is called smoke season. you might remember that iconic picture of the golden gate bridge in the fall of 2020 just completely shrouded in smoke from the wildfires nearby. my mom called me and was saying her and my dad were considering leaving the place that i was born and grew up and they said it felt like it was becoming unlivable from wildfires and droughts and as we've seen now floods and rain coming in. it was becoming a serious worry for them and they said for the first time it felt like climate change was coming for the first time. it's becoming a wake-up call not just for my parents and politicians. it's business as usual despite

the turmoil there's plenty of colleagues coming on board and they are there to help hold politicians and businesses to account to help communicate clearly what is going on in the changes we are seeing in the world and to also document those effects so that we know what's taking place and also to clearly explain the actions that need to be taken to combat the climate crisis. but first i'm looking forward to seeing if we can go even further than what we've done already. if you look back to the pandemic into the crisis then it felt like every single journalist became overnight an expert on viruses and to be able to explain to everyone what was going on and it wasn't just a journalists of it was scientists, across the board if

you are a business journalist, sports journalist, it was affected by what was happening. just think if we did the same thing for climate change. if we made every journalist at least start to realize how what they've been covering is affected as well and of course this goes far beyond just journalists, the intergovernmental panel of climate change also understands the importance of media and this time of climate crisis we are here to reflect on what specifically media can do to support those in the countries that are most affected by climate change. my colleagues at bbc media action understand how media and behavioral insights can create this kind of measurable change. we have an exciting panel to discuss this as we go today so i'm really pleased to have them here but first i just want to introduce gilley and caldwell

the chief climate officer and deputy assistant administrator. welcome. [applause] thank you so much. i hope everybody enjoyed earth day and got the chance to spend some time outside and perhaps experience this unprecedented pollen count speaking of climate change. i've never had allergies but i think that's what i have now and they are not much fun. the wonders of the netty pot. this is a really important conversation. i think we are all aware that we need government policy and regulatory action to tackle a crisis on this scope and scale but we really can't afford to ignore the opportunity that media and communications and behavioral change presents in the context of this crisis.

we've already heard a little something about the ipcc. i won't spend much time on this but if we start with the bad news, current emissions reductions, financing levels and adaptation efforts are woefully insufficient to deal with of the enormity of the crisis we are now facing. the recent report that summarizes the overwhelming scientific consensus and called itself a code red for humanity claiming the global commitments combined won't reduce the missions of the scale needed to help keep global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees celsius and that's just the commitments. meanwhile very few countries are keeping them. global energy emissions rose by 1% in 2022. when we know the carbon emissions out of large need to be falling by at least 4% a year or two and surely we have a chance of keeping global warming

within safe limits. and as a result of our inaction a child born today is likely to suffer on average many more climate extreme events in their lifetime as their grandparents did. the status quo just isn't cutting it. we need to significantly increase the scale and ambition of our efforts to tackle climate change across the globe and the only way we can do that is if we have enough people demanding changes from their government from companies, from a financiae financial institutions that will drive the big systemic changes that we need. media is one of the most powerful tools we have for driving this type of social and political movement and sustaining it through transparency and accountability. i noticed from personal experience throughout my own career i had the opportunity to really in the early days pioneer

the whole concept of video advocacy as it was then known. i lead a global undercover investigation into the russian mafia and their involvement in trafficking women for forced prostitution. what you see here is a still from the undercover footage we captured a woman saying to someone from the mafia who's trying to recruit her this was in an apartment in moscow it's just i've heard a lot of girls go abroad and they never make it back. this film that i produced the first one i ever produced was actually very highly catalytic for many reasons not the least of which the fact that we were talking about russia, the country of strategic interest to the united states and white women honestly but it catalyzed globally and systemic policy changes around the world and quite a lot of funding to tackle the problem of trafficking for

forced prostitution. i then had the opportunity to of witness where i helpedctor pioneer field of so-called videoocacy. when i started therehisas believe it or not before a time e had the internet in our hands, cameras in our h when a witness was f founded, we were donating video cameras that cost $1,800 to human rights groups that could ill afford it with the notion that seeing is believing, you can see it and film it and change it so i'm deeply passionate about the power and potential of media to drive change and i'm excited about what we can do to embrace that power potential. as mentioned i'm the chief climate officer and we've launched a whole of agency strategy that will take us

through 2030 and a first ever attempt to really double down on the climate crisis. karl was talking about what it would look like for journalists across all the beats to integrate insights and observe what is happening in their terrain that is driving the climate crisis and at the same is true whether you are working in education or humanitarian affairs or democracy rights and governance. you are seeing the impacts of climate change in your own terrain and we are calling for every mission bureau and operating unit to get serious about tackling the crisis in the context of our strategy. you see the high-level and we are looking at mitigation, adaptation, catalyzing finance a about the direct action thatt

needs to be taken but ao the more indirect systemices that w to advance action. in the last year with deep gratitude to congress we almost doubled our investments in ta thelimate crisis and we worked in some of the most the devastating floods inding to pa lauhing new efforts to conserve the amazon rain re and launching a call to the private sector to invest in building community's resilience to the climate crisis. but given the scale of this crisis we've only scratched the surface if we want to change and safeguard the progress we've made over the past 60 years since we were founded. so what role should the media communications play in our climate efforts? i think it falls broadly into two categories. one, deploying media who

campaigns and communications to drive behavior change and increase the resiliency and adaptation of the communities we are working to support and the other is leveraging media and communications as a tool for accountability so, this is an image from our health campaign focus the mos on the power and potential of driving behavior ge through communications. we've evolved this overhe last 40 years and gen a significant learning and insight on what works and what doesn't. for example, in parts of africa suggests you are seeing here, usaid has helped run campaigns elp destigmatize hiv and aids and normalize seeki treatment for infections. this helped drive behavior

change that led to significant increases in treatment initiations and re- engagement among the key populations including young men who were often reluctant to seek treatment. it's also been a very important tool as a part of a broader strategy to help bring the hiv-aids crisis under control. we've helped to support media campaigns and target interventions to change behavior in other areas as well. handwashing, vaccinations obviously especially most recently, reproductive health and nutrition. and we've got some takeaways from our work in the health sector that we will integrate into the work moving forward. first of all, communications based behavior change interventions such as mass media are effective when they form part of a broader plan for example combining the hiv-aids awareness work with policies to increase access to healthcare and open clinics and impacted

communities and not surprisingly, of course we've also learned that this kind of programming is going to be most effective when it's developed with local writers and designers and actors and artists so it parallels the sort of lived experience and culture of the communities that you're trying to communicate with and finally, research demonstrates that repeated exposure to messages is critical to delivering the programmatic impact. so we can and should i think incorporated these and from our health programming as we seek to scale our own efforts above to tackle the climate crisis. for example to increase support for conservation efforts, renewable energy and the whole range of individual decisions that we all make every day including whether we are going to choose low carbon transportation or not, what kind of diet we eat, are we eating

local. have we moved towards a diet that is half-year in vegetables as compared to meet which we knows drives substantial carbon emissions and preventing food waste because they are often huge drivers in the crisis. when it comes to behavior change it's also important to note as we sit here in washington, d.c. that populations in the global north that are binary drivers of greenhouse gas emissions we are the ones that most need to change our ways and i think we can all stepup in that way alongside our work to push governments to implement the policies and regulations we need to tackle the crisis. it's actually not going. this is anesting project we've engaged with ina as

well. we launched a partnership with conservation organization called wildlife direct toroduce national geographic kids africa which is a 26 part telev series that's producirel in africagain by african storytellers showcasing the stories, leadership and expertise of the local conservationists and the idea is that the stories will amplify young african voices to inspire their peers and their family and communities with ways to preserve the world around them. the project also includes outreach activities through schools, youth groups, conservation centers and communities with this goal of developing a passionate cadre of youth leaders with the motivation to protect the continent and the world around them. and this is another image related to the communications that are so criticay

important. as we all know, climate change is making disasters like floods andtorms much more frequent and severe and media and communicatnsan play critical role in increasing the resilience and reducing the disaster risk. we have a long history of supporti ely warning systems. one of the longest-running investments is in the famine early warning system and for nearly 40 years we have been a leader in the early warning for food and security which is of course a challenge that's only being exacerbated by the climate crisis. fuse net uses data from earth observing satellites like the one you see here to develop a tailored climate services to monitor and forecast the climactic positions in the countries it covers the end of this information is then used to develop forecasts with a number of people who faced severe food insecurity in the coming months which in turn helps the

humanitarian community and the usaid develop that life-saving emergency food assistance and through our partnership with the national geographic and atmospheric administration as well as the world meteorological organization and hydrologic research center, we've developed and implemented a flash flood guidance system that enabled national authorities to monitor and provide flash flood early warnings to more than 3 billion people in 67 countries around the world to date and yet still, one third of the world's population lacks early warning systems and not surprisingly the biggest gaps are in the countries where we were. to address that cap the un secretary general launched in early warning for all initiative which has helped galvanize the global efforts and media can play such a critical role in

getting that timely actionable life-saving information to people in harm's way. we know from our own experience and even 24 hours notice of an extreme weather even saves lives and livelihoods. media can also play a role in supporting the proactive planning to reduce the risks in the first place but we have to acknowledge there's barriers because in many countries where we are working, the media practitioners lack the knowledge and skills to report on the complex issues that we are describing and they may lack access to the technology they need to provide the reporting and in order to address that constraint we partnered with the united nations office for disaster risk reduction as well as bbc media action to strengthen the capacity of broadcast media organizations in 20 countries across africa, asia, the middle east and the caribbean to really help them

better fulfill their role in that kind of chain of communications and early warnings and we are equipping radio and tis outlets with that information to help them disseminate the disaster risk reduction solution fund. there is a broad range of topics everything from food and water security to the preparation for the claimant disasters that they become more and more severe. and of course we are encouraging that interregional collaboration between news and production and documentary so that through knowledge exchange they can deepen the fabric of potential that they have to do this kind of reporting. last i mentioned the possibility of media as a tool for accountability in climate and the climate context and i think in this context it's important to recognize the primary tool we have when it comes to

accountability for commenting the crisis is the paris agreement itself and under that agreement every single country submits their own individual plans called nationally determined contributions for how they will contribute to reducing global emissions. while every country that's a signatory of the agreement is obligated to deliver a plan we are not legally obligated to execute on the plan and of course there are many commitments they make that are contingent on funding which comes back to the developed countries and failed promises to deliver the funding necessary to support those developing countries and delivering on those plans. in most cases there just isn't the legal accountability to ensure they are delivered and we are falling behind. you can see here from the reality check may be a bit of a distance from you but if it's

not agree and it's not good let's put it that way. you're not seeing a lot of green on that map so in very rare instances and columbia is one where they are actually enshrined into national law. what we have on accountability fronts when it comes to these important commitments is the court of public opinion and national pressure and again developed countries need to be held accountable for providing the funding to the least developed countries to ensure they can make good on their commitments. but the media must also play a role in holding a mirror to our actions in highlighting our failures as well as our successes. and in the era of democratic restrictions on press freedom it's essential that we all support efforts for enabling the accountability investigative journalists face increasingly serious threats that are physical, verbal and legal in

nature. in fact they are being sued at three times the rate of other journalists and in that context, usaid is providing both expertise and funding to launch reporters mutual which is a global fund to shield investigative journalists from defamation lawsuits. that fund should be up and running this year, should provide insurance liabilities to cover the cost of defending journalists, civil society advocates and their organizations from defamation libel and other lawsuits meant to silence the reporting. so, to recap, global climate efforts are lagging dangerously in this incredibly decisive decade for action as senator kerry likes to call it we need to scale our ambitions and interventions. we've got a strong evidence from

our work as to how media and behavior can be effective as a part of a package of intervention and to promote the accountability that we need from the claimant commitments. so my call to all of you is this as we raise the ambitions to tackle the climate crisis, take note of the power and potential of media and behavioral insights and incorporate them into your own strategies and interventions. it's a critical complement to the policies and regulatory interventions we still need to get the job done and we can use these tools to hold drive and sustain the transformation that the moment requires to ensure the deep sustained changes that

it's going to take to reinvent the world we are living in today to tackle this crisis. so with that i will turn it back over to you and the panel and look forward to hearing what they have to say. [applause] so many themes and topics to give you a bit of a sense we will try to spend the next hour or so discussing with the fantastic people we have on today's panel and i want to make sure we can spend time at the end as well for your questions so as we are discussing and talking if you think of something you want to ask or bring up write that down and we will be sure to save a good ten or 20 minutes if we cannot the end to have a great discussion as well. but first, just touching on so

many of those things that were mentioned in terms of media and behavioral, i want to give a concrete sense of some of the things that we are talking about here. we want to show a clip about a program that bbc media action made in one of the countries that truly is on the front lines of climate impact right now. this is a tv reality series called together we can do it. it was made in the bengali language and it traveled across the country and challenged communities there to take action that they chose to help them ado climate change and this was the result of some in-depth research into the behavioral drivers that stimulate action among the populations impacted by climate so let's take a look.

♪♪ ♪♪ [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue]

i know you've worked on similar types of media projects. that was a cool example of one of them bit if you want to talk first of all on the results we just heard about in that show is that representative of the impact you are seeing elsewhere in some of the policies you've been working on? >> happy earth week everybody. to answer your question, yes we are. i will give an example of the project i've done. we did a multimedia project that translates to the return of the

forest. this was a multimedia program that was aimed at young people hand looked at how we could bring climate change to the center on climate action. the work was created on a television drama show that translates to our stories and combined that with a social media brand. >> is this reality as well as fictionalized? >> this was a drama program and we had such a program targeted at young people sitting alongside of that. we had a social media programs that were -- we looked at a

travel show and various attractions et cetera. we were training youth groups in universities and working with civil society organizations. so, what we saw from this program we aired the television partnership with the second largest broadcaster, the entire production team and understood the country very well and therefore we designed from that. first talk about the impact which is what you asked we reached 24.5 million people which is 17% over the age of 15

so at a scale we have reached which means people that hadn't seen the program were not aware so that was the conversation that was happening around it. they would expose the program. what we saw is to attribute to what the outcomes were and we did this in a partnership with the university. what we saw with that first people didn't just feel more knowledgeable to actually mentioning that change soap

choices around the consumption of meat and people exposed to the programthey also had an increased appetite for more constant on environmental issues. what we saw was that there were

changes and that the changes were quite strong but we did sort of a longitudinal survey and realized that some of those changes especially around knowledgebase were fading around over time. >> did you plan to do anything more because you said there was a demand for it. >> we are working on the second part of that program but also with indigenous people and looking at how when you have an ambition to change with governance intervention you also have the position to change on the ground but also i want to say two things. first, change is not permanent so therefore we need to think

about structural changes so for example when designing a program we need to think about what do we want to achieve as it relates to the direct climate change and also the values stopping the industry from doing this and we need to address those barriers as we are addressing the behavioral barriers for there to be sustainability and to keep funding this again and again over time. that's the first thing and i think the second is in some instances we've been able to measure change but in a lot of ways, and a lot of projects we are talking about having a measurement like this and i think that those stories collectively as a community we need to look at what are the barriers to manage that change

and we need to unlock those otherwise you just build it in our thinking of having to just keep picking up from the place you started over and over again. the other thing that is interesting is there is such a range of programming that can be made. you can do radio that we will be getting into a little bit later. i'm curious briefly what went into the particular project you worked on how did you incorporate you mentioned you worked with a lot of people on the ground behavioral insights as well. how did you end up designing the project specifically for what you were trying to achieve? >> a friend of mine said that when thinking about the information there's the sign looking at data and understanding the audience and then coming up with advice

beyond and in terms of how you design your information and programming still engaging people and i think it's really important when thinking about this when it comes to climate change the challenge we have is to make it for the target audience. we need to break it down and i will give you three examples. the first is anything we are designing around climate change there's politics behind it and lots of policies but we need to really drill down and it must

mean something different we need to keep that audience in mind. there are various different ways to do it. ♪♪ ♪♪

a lot of these were featured in the tv drama show. it's a story of a young person which is kevin and his journey over time coming from somebody who isn't clued in to what is happening around him to becoming the leader within his village and there are different sustainability and climate angles around transportation choices, energy choices and it's really what took place with all these characters based on the study that we did and we came up with in that study and there are other characters around so we

brought all of those into the show. second, we need to be really clear of the viewing audience. in this instance in the agent society through the number of gray hair that you have but struggling to find a social identity for themselves and therefore respect the fact that if you were to understand climate change and have a meaningful conversation about it you would have that identity

formed. we saw in the evaluation the study showed a lot of them did it. so we not only based on that inside of the vocabulary to be able to have that conversation. at the end of the day even if we were reporting back around climate change at the end of the day communication in the media is very emotional. it can change the way people know about things and the way people think about things and the way people feel about certain issues and all of that leads to doing things differently and that we shouldn't lose sight of that and to be able to build in a way that is emotionally compelling

for the audiences but we need to be careful because it is easy for us to go from a climate change lens and the urgency needs to be built around the various information and other areas. >> seeing how that was designed that's not a reference maybe everyone knows anymore. >> like you said you wouldn't even know it has a climate change show. it's fascinating to see the way that you designed that. thanks for sharing the media action stuff. we want to make sure that we bring in a government perspective as well.

the call to action to make sure the media and behavioral insights are in the kind of national strategies and plans. we want to take the opportunity to get that perspective let's introduce now one of our virtual guests. can you hear us okay? >> hi, everyone. >> joining from nepal i know it is a bit later where you are so thank you for being up at this late hour and joining us and being able to share your perspective from a country that obviously is very much feeling the effects of climate change from the peaks and valleys there. i just want to ask you, so governments are responsible for so many aspects of managing climate change and listening to people and their needs and what they need in terms of adapting and giving them the information they need to take action so i know that you are very involved in climate communication in

terms of integrating that into your official plan. just tell us a bit about how that claimant communication and the context how that takes place. >> thanks for having me as a part of the panel. a mountainous country with lots of values and creams picturesque but comes with a lot of disasters, floods, landslides. would climate change has done is actually worsen the problems of the floods and landslides. this week alone, we witnessed an unprecedented forest fire all across the country very much attributed to the lack of rainfall during the winter season and so the complexities

are again worsened by climate change and also we feel [inaudible] the challenge begin to understand what kind of language and how we communicate this so to address this we started by inculcating the need to communicate the action plan. the 2013 and 2018 we were trying to understand the framework. we used the framework this is where the non-governments and

private sector, local governments all come together and realize having the need for this is included in the action plans so this is where the beginning actually happens. so we've been able to take this into an actual practice by them trying to identify what language this is and what kind of media are defective in terms of reaching out to these communities that have been affected by landslides and drought, the wildfires and then be able to bring changes. one critical work that we have been able to advance ever since i was appointed by the government is to again use this

information and carry out into simple language on social media sites using also facebook, twitter and also tick-tock so these have been powerful in terms of reaching out to communities. what we've also witnessed is again during the floods and landslides seasons in the last two years we've also witnessed covid so this is the time when people again are not able to travel and a social media has been very effective reaching out in terms of effectively helping them make the kind of decisions. one last thing i would mention

this example of the risk communications into the early warning system the government of nepal its priorities for the early warning systems all across the country. lightening, forest fires. this is where again we try to use this in various languages and the way going forward using all kinds of media. that's how we would want to take it going forward in terms of high-risk but also the rich diversity of languages and. i wanted to ask if you could share your account with us so we can look if you've been doing

anything. but i'm curious because you mentioned the various challenges some of them cultural, some of them demographic. what's been the biggest challenge for you in terms of which group is hardest to reach or how are you able to overcome those specific challenges and what have you learned in those moments it might be difficult to reach out to certain groups? >> we did a study in the u.s. government, usaid it was a joint work between the committee action and the natural disasters. what we tried to do is ask this question by understanding what are the faults of communications and we figured out that again these people are hit by floods,

landslides but the other challenge is they didn't have access to other forms of media such as newspapers or televisions, fm radios and social media. an effective means of communication so this is done through a study with locations based on previous, so this has really held us open, our ways of thinking and the design and way of looking at communicating the risk for these. ..

the elderly who cannot read or write so this is what we've been able to identify. these are the key areas in these locations by people like myself. so there are different set of languages. it's understanding communications and what are the hazards that are hitting and how do we help them bring behavioral changes. having said that it's a continuous learning process for

us and not only from the central level but also working with the media at the state level and also the municipal level is what we try for. >> you mentioned really broad-ranging and broad reaching plans. i'm curious if you could share with us what was the tipping point and at what point did the government decide or realize it needed to start to implement some kind of climate change outreach and disaster communication? >> again it started back in 2020. we were established before it hit us so we had very little time to prepare for it and we

also had to deal with the floods. so what's best for the environment was to really work on it. we did work it out together and we were able to travel and speak to the people in those locations. we then looked at the power of the media especially in the new forms of media. that is what really we took us an opportunity and early 2020. we had to look at the intersection between the planes and during the documentary was

such a diverse situation. so it's very similar to what we see. look at the intersection between covid and floods in the intersection of -- is what we started looking for. we were looking at different communications and wait to go at it. there are also other sets of challenges lightning that strikes us and strikes more than 100 people a year. the best way for us to reach out so we are able to see that as the previous speaker said.

reaching out to students and teachers and schools and especially with children. this is how we see using the right set of languages and messaging and various forms of media to bring in behavioral changes to bring in the best value. and to provide structural forms. again investing a fraction of the resource for designing communications systems reaching out to those people with such a wise decision for us. and us. that quickly one more question for you because you mentioned right now you're dealing with sweeping wildfires which i would imagine would contribute a tip bad air quality in the country.

can you quickly give us an example of how you've been using this communication told maybe it's tik tok and maybe it's radio, to reach people in the midst of what's been going on right now. >> i like to give a couple of examples. predominantly it's caused by human causes. we started by picking up a legal provision in our law. you could be fined or -- so this is really looking into how workforce tree systems work and

at such a difficult area. there is a lot of labor force in the hills and so to create that. it does hit on the other side of things. that too is a situation where there has been a major drought. this is again where messaging is really important. we have also been able to -- which is difficult and put up graphics that tells you how force filers and wildfires on an

hourly basis in those aspects and we have been able to put it together it is very valuable especially spreading the message. unfortunately so the global charts. for a couple of days we happened to be number one on air quality for the worst air quality. we got a little bit of rain so that really helped put down some those fires. so that's certainly good to hear. thank you so much for sharing those insights with us to what time is it for you now? >> it's a quarter to two in the morning. grab a coffee or tea and thank you so much again for sharing that with us. you had mentioned a bit about

radio discussing tik tok and television programs but it's really important to know the wide range of the scope of the media in play and how important something that's been around for so long like that. let's bring in albert who is in kenya and he's in his radio station i believe where ryu been doing a lot of amazing work and award-winning journalist and presenter. can you hear us okay? >> yes i can hear you. >> i know it's late there so thank you for joining us and as i said you were in the radio station where you make a lot of programs that reach people who are feeling the impacts of climate change as well. tell us a bit about your personal experience and the experiences of the people that you reach with your coverage. >> thank you for having me. it's about 11 and kenya.

it's the largest county in kenya. at 6953 square kilometers and mostly my audience and we can talk about my audience my audience -- in this case you find it's accepted mostly by the drought. we are one of the 17 counties. we experienced five seasons.

there has been lack of pasture and lack of water. most of the animals around 40,000 goat and died where they couldn't get water. mostly because of that i'm supposed to give information. in 22018 we partnered and i was privileged to attain training so i attended it.

i learned how i can cover stories and initially to tell you the truth i was able to get to various topics to cover in climate change. they taught us how we can look for stories which can really have an impact on our audience and from that i was able to 50 programs focusing on weather and climate and stories and programs for my audience. during that time i was able to receive feedback from the audience. and if they have information because you realize when there is a drought you experience

floods when the rain comes. you experience floods. i was able to pass information on. i'm able to tell them they will be a lot afraid and they are supposed to move away from the lowland areas into higher areas. i am able to give them information on what they can plan. if we are having a short-range where we supposed to do and what kind of things are we supposed to plan. that's the kind of information i share with my audience and you understand you find out i came

because my video uses local language and i use the local language so i can share with my audience and they are able to understand about the rainfall. >> albert i'm curious what kind of reaction and what kind of feedback have you gotten from your listeners that you are reaching out to? >> well you find out in my program to bring in opinion leaders so they come and explain to their audience what they are doing. maybe it's combating climate

change. you've find out the audience and asking government officials what they are doing to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen because the government has been reluctant sometimes in providing information which is available to them. that's the time they come out and ask their government what they are doing to make sure they talk about the impact of climate change. >> he said the area that you service a large one. it's a big area. you are reaching out to herders and farmers in different communities. can you talk a bit about the power of -- and how you are able to use this technology. it's not like its out of fashion. everyone is putting into their -- the mind to tik tok. how is radio eu able to reach

people in ways that other media are not? >> you know you find out in the county the only thing they can afford is a radio. don't only thing they can carry is a radio so in order to pass on information you have to use the radio because that is when you can give someone the day-to-day activities. i've been able to use that radio to pass information about whether and i'll use an example. there was lots of drought and i

realized there were a lot of children being born. i started asking myself what is the reason why. i realized they were born underweight. after i found out i realized because there was a lot of drought the men who were given the task they leave the wind behind in the children and now the women don't get the nutrition they need from milk and. you find out there is not enough food for mothers who are pregnant mothers so you find out it impacted them and affected

the children who were born. most children were born -- and that's how i highlight this. we had to use a radio station to pass information. to pass on information to women. they give liquids to women and pregnant women to help them with nutrition to help the children. >> really powerful reporting albert. thank you for sharing that with us and thank you for joining us at such a later.

hang out there for few more minutes if he wouldn't mind and we'll hear from the final member of our panel. what we have been talking about him all these programs is the duty to support an earlier we heard that call about integrating media and behavioral insights and activity. i want to go further into that. genevieve is here a senior adviser for climate and environment and it's great to have you. just to cut to the basics of the legalities of aid programs they often involve solving big challenges. from a donor perspective how specifically can you bring together education behavioral insights and packets that all together into climate program? >> thank you so much for the question. and generally exceed so much of what we do so in that spirit so much of what we are trying to

achieve is an organization needs to and benefits from the action of global communities and the action of individuals. when we think about that the power and we have seen it in the specifics you were mentioning around the impact of the programs the power of media. so powerful of the tool are the kinds of objectives we set. in this climate space there is a need for that power of what media brings his apparent in the resilience area and the negation space. i want to give to examples one of each. i think we have seen some pretty powerful examples here in this space already that relate to early warning systems.

i think in the space going back to something he said in outset it's a fairly shocking number that one third of the work population doesn't have access to early warning systems for it in solving this kind of problem and when we are talking about situations where access to that information could literally, the cost of it could be life and the likelihood being able to reach more matters. in the spaces we have invested in partnering with media in partnering with organizations we have really drawn if you lessons. i do want to speak to those. and i think actually be enforced -- reinforce the things we have said so far. one would need to bring information to people to allow them to act in what we found

even with the most sudden shock we had more than 24 hours to no information that communities need. with that we need to work together and speak with one clear authoritative voice of the action that will be taken is obvious and clear. so working in close partnership with meteorological organizations and working with media we are able to come up with that very succinct and clear action that can make a considerable difference when it happens in third q. do you really need to use multiple media channels because i think we have heard some examples of why. different media outlets in different types of media reach different communities. so part of it is that but i think part of it is also unique backup because the actions can

make such a difference and they need to happen fast so being able to sort of use radio and use tv and tv is sometimes trusted more than the meteorological organizations. to use it in texting and use social media when you are trying to reach a population knowing that there are different values to each of these and also relying on an amedi is the path to that. relying on different communities that are trusted so they can reinforce the messages like religious institutions. if you listen to come from the resilience phase i want to say quickly it's as powerful they are. an example where behavioral insight and behavioral change really made a difference is in zambia where over 75% of urban

households are using charcoal is there primary cooking fuel source. demand for charcoal is raising -- rising esperence late and so apart from the many other impacts of that there is a pretty significant deforestation in a country that has one of the highest deforestation levels in a row. local infinity influencers and producing market barriers in the policy issues at the same time is a critical way to shift that. >> so wasn't just the fact that this was maybe something that was cheaper but a lot of it had to do with making sure we could communicate the right message about that. >> exactly right. one of the things that usaid is

honed in on is the training of urban influence and religious leaders to start promoting clean cooking through live demonstrations and information sharing and focus groups and through that we have been able to reach and promote clean burning fuel to more people. it's also reinforcing the point made earlier that's very critical here that the connection between using these media channels and working on these behavioral change campaigns at the same time you are saying that focus on polity -- policy objectives and the need to coordinate the two things because we have seen here in the states that when you have a big sort of campaign around a bigger change if everybody sorting their recyclables into lots of different different

categories and then you also picture that same set of well sorted recyclables going into one trash bin. you don't have the infrastructure changes that back up the action you are asking for it could result in a pretty negative outcome. that's one side and the other side my last point we can see if we had a commitment set at a middle level but we don't have that community by and for what needed you don't have community action and the whole society action is needed to deliver on it. governments have plenty of work that we need to do to deliver on the commitments we set so when we see the most powerful delivery of this commitment is because you have buy-in throughout the entire society and that by and leads the same pressure and accountability we were talking about at the outset

as well. this is whole system thing when you start the targeting of her broader community. >> and so many people are talking about making sure you get the government on board and whether religious leaders are influencers or designing a television program and not necessarily about a big government plan. hold that thought because usaid is not the only group that funds a lot of this work. their global organizations the green climate fund is one of them. they are based in korea. we wanted to bring in their voice but it was the middle of the night there. we didn't have someone to stay up until 4:00 in the morning but we did speak earlier with deborah and she is the head of the communications. here's a little clip of her explaining. >> i want to thank usaid for having me and i want to wish

everyone a happy birthday. it's another reminder on the urgency of the climate crisis and what we can do on the health and well-being of the planet we inhabit. let me tell you about the green climate fund. with the world's largest fund established as a financial mechanism and the paris agreement. it's to help the world make a paradigm shift to low-carbon and developing countries on climate ambition. we all know there's not enough climate -- trillions of dollars so we use their funds on the catalytic manner needed by developing countries to transition to become greener and more resilient. because developing countries face several challenges in getting financing they need we help developing countries turn

their climate conditions into bankable impactful things. >> while we had deborah their we had -- and the green climate fund and here's what she said. >> that's a good question. we can't underestimate the role of climate change. unfortunately in some cases it's misinformed to be an transparency tool. we see media as a partner in climate action impressed it's important that we know about the impact of our investment and what we are doing to help the most full of communities. the groups are often the ones that don't a lot of media attention. the helping us tell the stories of our audience media can help us grow credibility and trust

amongst our country reduce partner stakeholders and -- that and the end means more support and solidarity for global climate action and that's needed for us to take on the taking climate timebomb. to put in the words of the u.n. secretary-general. >> thank you to deborah hong of the green climate fund for sharing her thoughts and genevieve that want to quickly circle back to you with usaid. a lot of the discourse and rightly so discussing all of these things through the lens of justice and equity. how should we wrap up a lot of the topics we have been discussing today into that kind of round of climate? >> it's a great and fundamental question. i think we have heard several really important examples that help answer that question and

wired radio is needed to reach populations who otherwise might not be the one to get this information at a time when they need it when i'm disaster strikes are we prepared for the effects of the drought brings. so trying to really think about those populations that most need the information and might be the last to get it is something that train to and gauge a range of media makes possible. the whole conversation is one of how do we make sure that access is not just for those who have the resources. fundamentally this is about making sure the information is available to all. i think we have still a ways to go before we can actually get beyond the hard line one third number but i think this whole

kind of conversation allows us to walk that path to get there. we have to keep that lens because that is how we make sure we answer the question right but i think it's the right question for all of us to ask. >> genevieve thank you very much and i did promise everyone that they save time again for questions and i think we just about do that. does anyone first of all have a question and as a reminder we would love to hear from you. you can ask anybody on the panel including our virtual guests as well who have graciously agreed to hang out with us and if you wouldn't mind to briefly introduce yourself and if you can keep your questions as concise as possible to make sure we have time to answer questions about headed raise your hand i believe we have a microphone

that will hand round around the room and if anybody on the panel wants to address anybody else's questions feel free as well. if you have a question go ahead and then we can come and find you. if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself. >> hello. i'm working with rare. i wanted to ask you if you are thinking about investment terms of measurement and trying to use that to be able to generate the kind of funding to have a global scale media especially for information. medias could adapt the behavior changes and funding in the measurement itself. >> genevieve you want to tackle that one first? >> i will try.

it's a very good question and a very important one he couldn't think where we are in a space right now where the power of our actions is kind of only as powerful as what we actually understand an impact. that's a poorly worded answer. being able to use to know what we are investing in what it does in its home port in to solve the problems. we are getting to the kind of delivery on the commitments that we need. the only way we can start to see that is to know how we are doing in the difference it makes. the kinds of numbers we were referring to at the outset of this conversation help us. i think one of the things we are doing within the context of our climate strategy is trying to look at in those -- with these

very ambitious targets what does that mean to have less vulnerability and what does it mean in the tracking of the number of greenhouse gases emitted. it's easier to track and the behavior changes we are talking about here i think we are undertaking a robust effort to try and look at those kinds of evaluation kinds of criteria for what it looks like. it's not a super satisfying answer because it doesn't get you the you know here's what the targeted impact of these behavior change efforts were talking about but on a path to identify that. >> you are nodding your head. do you agree? in terms of bang for your buck if you want talk about it that way.

>> i think there's a role. we talk about behavior change and it's important for us to track the change so we need to follow things that impact change because that's very important when you think about how far we have come. and where we need to go it's important for us as we go along. an example talking about the project we were funded to do research around that and we had a conversation when this case -- to say there is merit to actions.

this is why we need to invest in it. it's a two-way conversation but it's also conversation about human insight and how communication works and how to understand that as we go along. >> any other questions or any other hands up? there's one right there. where are you from in your question? >> we will i'm with an organization that does technical advisories and today -- an in media action in india. my question you had mentioned at the top that we need to think about structural programs in addition to baker programs me to think about the barriers in preventing media organizations

from pursuing programs or otherwise. i'm curious what you think those barriers are and i will stop there. that's a lot of questions. >> thank you very much. i love that question. this something that's close to my heart as well. when i think about media scale in public service with private media companies to think the key barriers are around the ability to take risks. people are operating at 0.5 etc.. so therefore we are not

anti-revenue. we are coming at it from the perspective of scale. we need eyeballs to achieve the target. therefore it's a win-win and when we are designing the solution we need to think about how we fund it and we get a free local broadcast spot. let's say we are talking about how to transition that can provide technical support probably look at funding directly for the entire protection and then think about how do we look at that journey and how do we look at using the risk and an understanding of the team and communicate it in a way

that's facilitative. i think all of the state to work in a way that shows we are trying to transition over. structural changes are going to be training. we need to look at the combination and intervention where providing for her. sick with time for few more questions. did he hand over here. >> good afternoon. my name is keith bettinger. we have seen an interesting continuum of programming. infotainment types of products seem to be aimed at an emerging middle class in bangladesh and indonesia to straight information products like an early warning system and

agriculture for our colleagues in nepal and kenya. i'm wondering if they are in patania and -- infotainment resources if there's a sweet spot there and behavior change for those community. give examples of that? >> i'd like to see what albert thinks because it seems like something he might want to enter into two. the radio program in terms of getting pure information out there heavy thought about or is there anything in the works in your work with the media action to develop that a bit further? >> thank you again. i think we shy away from

covering stories. it's hard to talk about climate change. we find again sometimes the language used in the bulletins we prepare. for me they undertook an initiative to give them training one thing they did is to bring bring -- we had training together with other experts. we took a core production and

how can we access it. the importance of commenting on what they are asking. the journalists will take that information and breaks down information and uses it simply has language to their audience. they should continue with that type of work. that will have a huge impact and cooled that climate impact

information reach. sick and how you do you reach them and how do you do that? see entertainment --. in india we have done a program part of her range of mobile health information work supported by usaid. one of the things we did was to get a box full of chatter and that wasn't entertainment program that was meant for help is a topic on the day that they meet when within the village and to use that format to create conversations amongst them. it was a model of the story in fictional characters that led to that conversation happening. we use that format across

multiple ways not just in that media that group conversations as well. we are leading with examples of how we and other organizations can apply to the context of climate change. >> i think we have time to maybe squeeze in one more question. maybe one in the back there get a microphone there. we should have a couple more minutes. >> thank you very much. it's my pleasure to be here today. my question because what we are talking about mostly a country based so i'd like to hear from you what to expect like the original aspect and original platform with media to help

accelerate reaching out at a higher level. we are setting a very bold target once you achieve in making a system change, to do so you have a limited resource. how can we balance between changing of behavioral which may take more time and finding other ways that we could achieve the target quicker? thank you. >> and then shutting question and thinking about this regional change i think you are still with us there. i want to ask you just briefly because nepal is a small country but there are couple of very large countries india and china. is there any thought about how you work regionally in your area in communications and climate action? >> thanks.

it's not done in a structured way to what we see is a potential of using media in india and using it here. similarly having discussions with their colleagues in india. we need to enable to design products using animation that reaches out to people in india as well. it's perhaps a way going forward

the kind of culture that we all experience. those are the changes we are trying to look for and so floods the same setting and context and what's being done. here's a potential with structured programs. having said that there had been work on an early warning system. if you fly into india and eventually the polys this is where we see the potential of putting this forward. so looking at ways to think

through a design to bring programs would be really helpful. >> quickly. >> i think it's a great question because i think we have been talking in the early warning products this information giving and in particular i think there are some products that are more seasonably focused and do cover trends and watersheds across boundaries. thinking about all of those different types of events that we will have to respond to requires thinking it through. had absolute seems that things were talking about could rightly be applied from a regional perspective and a longer time horizon perspective as well. i know there've been efforts to

do some sort of real thinking about regional forecast and talking to reject communities about the things that are useful but there's a lot to draw on as we think about the other type of products that are country specific. it's a great question because what we are doing here just trying to figure out a way of kind of programming and solutions we need to provide. >> i want to thank all of our panelists. those sitting to my left. genevieve miracle and our virtual guests for being with us as well. a big round of applause for all of them. thank you so much for being here. [applause] we would love to leave you with a final reminder about the call to action from gillian caldwell. you're working on climate change how media can be integrated into

action -- adaptation plans or efforts and the final word goes to somebody who i am personally proud to call a colleague at the bbc david attenborough. certainly it's very pertinent to our discussion today. again thank youo much for being here and thank youo our virtual audience as well and again around of applause for you. thanks again for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations]