A WACC-supported team of 11 community media reporters is on the ground at the United Nations climate change conference COP30. Their mission? To unpack why communication justice must be at the heart of climate justice.

Led by our partners Latin American Network of Radio Education – ALER in Ecuador and Amazon Radio Network – RNA in Brazil, the reporters are putting front and center the voices of communities hardest hit by climate change.

“In theory, we all have the same communication rights,” says Lorenzo Vargas, WACC’s program director who is leading the delegation in Belem, Brazil.

“But communities on the front lines of the climate crisis – Indigenous peoples, peasants, poor people in urban contexts – face significant economic, political, and cultural barriers to exercise those rights and have their voices not only heard but taken seriously.”

Vargas stresses that policy responses to climate change must be shaped by the lived experience and solutions of these communities. “Their voices must be heard in public debate.”

Key topics for the WACC-supported team of community broadcasters from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela reflect such vital policy concerns:

• a just transition for communities impacted by extractivism
• community-led efforts to protect forests
• the need to upgrade urban infrastructure in low-income areas to cope with changing weather patterns
• initiatives to promote food sovereignty

Their daily coverage from the UN climate summit is expected to reach around 5 million people across Latin America, in particular Indigenous communities, family farmers, and other grassroots groups.

Two highlights of coverage by the WACC COP30 delegation are an ecumenical gathering at Belem’s Anglican cathedral on 11 November and the parallel side event “No hay justicia climática sin justicia comunicativa” (There is no climate justice without communication justice) on 17 November.