Global warming is likely to lead environmental catastrophe — frequent droughts, sea level rises, loss of biodiversity — unless societies around the world radically change their ways of life.
WACC believes that there is strong link between communication and environmental action, including responses to climate change.
The global response to climate change depends in part on how much public attention is paid to climate-related issues — particularly in the media. News reports can help drive public mobilization and policy change.
Climate change impacts people and communities in vulnerable situations disproportionately. WACC believes we must enable those communities to tell their stories, organize for change, and advance their own solutions to the climate crisis.
We are working with partners to support communities at the grassroots level to harness traditional ecological knowledge and to form networks of environmental citizen journalists. Our multi-year project in partnership with the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is promoting the protection of sensitive ecosystems in Colombia.
Projects supported under this theme align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, SDG 13-on Climate Action, and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
WACC’s Annual Report 2023 “Communication Justice for All” showcases the organization’s collective work last year to speak up for and advance just, inclusive, and community-led communication worldwide. “WACC believes in communication that builds and shapes community, enhances participation, and promotes freedom. Communication that demands accountability,...
A new WACC-supported study underlines the centrality of community radio to bridge communication and information gaps that hinder local communities in the Amazon from actively participating in forming environmental policy. The publication, “Voces de la Amazonia: Diagnóstico Ambiental – Comunicacional de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana, Brasileña...
This year alone has seen devastating floods in Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Dubai, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. Wildfires broke out in western Canada and Texas. Cyclones swept islands and nations along the Indian Ocean. News reports informed audiences that pets and livestock needed temporarily...
WACC is partnering with the Communication Foundation for Asia (CFA) to equip the Alangan-Mangyan people in the Filipino province of Mindoro as storytellers to bring their voices into the public sphere and protect their unique environment. A long-time WACC partner, CFA was established in 1968...
WACC has partnered with the La Sandia Digital (Digital Watermelon) in Mexico to hone communications strategies for social movements and organizations to promote socio-environmental and gender justice. The project, co-funded by the Ford Foundation (Mexico), has sought to defend the right to clear communication strategies...
The Methodist Development and Relief Agency (MeDRA), a WACC partner in Zimbabwe, is helping communities gain access to the knowledge they need to adapt to climate change. Communities in Zimbabwe are becoming increasingly vulnerable to protracted droughts and other climate-related disasters, notes MeDRA, a nongovernmental...
Indigenous leaders from around the world gathered in New York last month during UN Climate Week to raise awareness about the need to bring Indigenous and traditional perspectives into climate policy. Their call is to recognize the vital role that these communities, many of which...
Local voices and community-led climate action — rights-based and sustainable — hold the key to global climate solutions, concluded panelists at WACC’s most recent Conversation Circle. The online discussion “Local Climate Voices: The Missing Link to Real Climate Action?” on 11 October offered members and...
The WACC online discussion “Local Climate Voices: The Missing Link to Real Climate Action?” on 11 October offers members and partners the chance to explore why and how the voices of local communities can contribute effectively to meeting the global threat of climate change. “Local...
The Africa Climate Summit 2023 on September 4–6 in Nairobi came with high expectations of radical proposals to address climate change. “Driving green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world,” the theme promised. In their Nairobi Declaration from the Summit, African heads...
The Amazon is being decimated — by the expansion of the agricultural frontier, by illegal economies linked to drug trafficking, and by an economic model that privileges mining and ranching and negatively impacts vulnerable communities. These activities are pushing deforestation levels towards 20%, a point...
WACC has launched Voices of the Amazon, a multi-year project in partnership with the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) that will use community radio to enable grassroots communities in the region to be active participants in developing environmental policy. “The voices, knowledge, and...
Each year, political and economic leaders gather in Davos, Switzerland, in meetings organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Issues discussed at Davos are typically at the top of national and international agendas, and many see the gathering as one of the key spaces from...
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 2021 report unequivocally linked climate change to human activity and predicted more frequent and more severe natural disasters over the coming years. Given the current trajectory of emissions and lack of meaningful climate action, the world...
A WACC-supported project in Bolivia will work to establish a network of rural communicators, a higher percentage of them women, who can produce content on gender and climate change for the radio station of El Ceibo, the first certified organic cocoa operative in the world....
From a story about the rehabilitation of mangroves in Southern Philippines to cultivating better science communication for a deeper engagement and response to the climate crisis, Media Development’s last issue of the year offers tangible examples as well as ideas on the theme, Communicating Climate...
On November 5, 2021 WACC will join hundreds of organizations around the world in a 24-hour Video Marathon, Hands Off our Rights, Hands off our Planet!, which will take place during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. The climate summit will be held...
The Philippines has been identified as one of the top 10 countries most at risk from the effects of climate change, and yet millions of marginalized Filipinos who will be hit the hardest are not aware of it, according to the Center for Environmental Concerns...
WACC has announced its support for a project in Uganda that will establish a network of specialized climate and environmental reporters for community radio stations who have limited resources and are unable to hire journalists trained in climate sciences and environmental disciplines. The project, to...
WACC has announced its support for a project in Burkina Faso that will strengthen the resilience and capacities of farming communities to climate hazards and disasters. The project will include creating a network of journalists and citizen environmental animators, and is being implemented by Réseau...
The Indigenous Community Radio Network (ICRN), an umbrella organization of 21 Indigenous radio stations in Nepal, and other Nepali media organizations have successfully lobbied their national and provincial governments to introduce new mass communication, media, information and technology bills that are “more inclusive of the...
WACC Communication for Social Change manager Lorenzo Vargas recently visited two community radio stations in Colombia which are taking part in a WACC-supported project establishing a network of environmental journalists to help promote a culture of people-led environmental protection in regions that are home to...
October 21, 2020 — Local radio and television stations in Kenya have been giving airtime to stories produced by the Farm Forestry Smallholder Producers Association of Kenya (FF-SPAK), which has partnered with WACC and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to support Promoting Traditional Climate Change Mitigation...
Learning to respect and trust If peace is a measure of a society’s ability to absorb shocks without falling or relapsing into conflict, then it must be based on trust, equality, and respect for human dignity. Covid-19 has clearly set obstacles in the path of...
WACC Global is taking part in a campaign across Africa to promote family farming and its essential role in supporting food security and sustainable development. Yenkasa Africa, a regional communication for development and rural development sharing platform facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Farm Radio...
Rising temperatures, fickle rainfall, and drought have made Kenya vulnerable to climate change. With agriculture dominating Kenya’s economy, a big challenge facing family farmers is learning how to adapt to the effects of climate change. But a particular sector – smallholder farm families – has been ahead of the curve. These farmers have been regularly engaged in tree planting, efficient...
Fifteen years ago, Sibuguey Bay in southwestern Mindanao, Philippines, was in an alarming state. Fish and other marine resources were nearly depleted due to illegal, unregulated fishing and mangrove deforestation. But the situation began to turn around in 2005, when the Coalition of Municipal Fisherfolk Associations (COMFAS) began to rehabilitate and establish fish and...
Indigenous peoples are “not mere victims of climate change,” asserts researcher and conservation biologist Gleb Raygorodetsky in Why traditional knowledge holds the key to climate change, one of the articles in the latest issue of Media Development, WACC Global’s international quarterly journal. The issue explores the theme, Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change: Bridging the Gap.
As Pacific Island Governments work on a coordinated regional response to Covid-19, Tropical Cyclone Harold, which has already hit the Solomon Islands and bears down at category 5 level on Vanuatu, the region faces a stark reminder that climate-related disasters remain a major security threat. ...
Water shortage resulting from increased and longer periods of drought has been identified as one of the effects of climate change. Who will be affected most by the scarcity of water supply? One way to find out would be to ask who the primary collectors,...
About 75 Kwéyòl-speaking Saint Lucians have now increased their knowledge of the language of climate change and sustainable development in Kwéyòl, thanks to a WACC-supported project developed by the Folk Research Centre (FRC). FRC is a local NGO devoted to the research, study, recording and...
WACC Global is proud to announce its new initiative with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help build the capacity of communities at the grassroots level – particularly family farmers’ associations – in using local and traditional knowledge for sustainable resource management and climate...
Some 25,000 government, private sector, scientific community, and civil society representatives from over 200 countries are currently attending the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid, Spain. It is increasingly clear that climate change is no longer a future problem – the past five years have been...
Grupo Comunicarte, a longstanding member and partner of WACC will play a central role in organizing the 2020 Pan-Amazon Social Forum, especially in relation to communications and communication rights. The Pan-Amazon Social Forum, a gathering of Indigenous activists and civil society representatives from countries in the...
Wind power is one of the fastest growing sources of energy in the world. The wind power industry creates new jobs, offsets emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, and enhances security of electricity supply.
Canada can tackle climate change with programs, policies and regulations that help reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in our homes, businesses, schools and communities.
Nearly two decades ago, leading climate scientists concluded that the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas was increasing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and causing climate change.
More and more organizations and individuals are taking action on climate change by going “carbon neutral.”
What is causing climate change? Why is climate change a problem?