Nepal Monitor: The National Online Journal

Navin Singh Khadka, 38, is one of the few Nepali journalists who have been consistently, and for a considerable period, covering the environment beat. In recent years, he has focused his reporting on climate change issues about Nepal and South Asia. Based in London, he is an Environment Reporter for BBC News. He also has been a Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) fellow (2009-). In this interview with Nepal Monitor, Khadka shares his observations on the recent Copenhagen summit process, journalistic approaches at work in covering the emerging issue of climate change, and professional as well as policy implications of the new beat.

As a journalist writing regularly on climate change issues and having focused some of your reporting on the recent climate change summit held in Copenhagen, how would you assess the Summit process and its outcome?
The UN climate processes are often known to be quite complicated and tardy but given that they have to bring together nearly 200 countries for a consensus, it’s not going to be easy either. The Copenhagen summit proved to be even more chaotic because initially there were two rival groups– developing countries pushing for the Kyoto process and developed countries trying to dump the 1997 treaty, which will expire in 2012. While the deadlock kept the conference going nowhere for almost two weeks, towards the end an even more messy turn took place. The US, that had other developed countries rallying behind it for the end of the Kyoto protocol, struck a deal with Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC countries that are with the pro-Kyoto G77 plus China bloc) and brought out the Copenhagen accord. Since it was done outside of the official UN system, many developing countries cried foul and most developed countries were left red-faced.

The marriage of convenience– between the US and the BASIC countries– proved that these were the countries that wanted no binding climate treaty. While some developing countries were asking the conference chair not to get the accord within the UN climate regime, parties to the accord like China were saying that the number of countries supporting the agreement will increase in the days to come. In his last press meet during this conference, I asked the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer how many countries had supported the accord and now many were against. He had no figures, and rather went on to explain the UN climate system. It is this confusion the Copenhagen summit has been able to bring about– jeopardizing the future course under the UN regime for a legally binding climate treaty that could address global warming.

There were some concerns that many journalists did not get enough access to the summit proceedings as well as the fact that some media, particularly in the West, did not prioritize climate change coverage in their outlets. What is your impression of their performance in the whole process leading up to the summit?
We did get to hear about some media organizations that did not get accreditation but it was said that they had applied quite late. I don’t know what the fact is. But for the journalists who were already in the conference, I think the UN had reasonably effective system to disseminate information– be it through live webcast, broadcast, press meets and even recorded documents. A leak apparently by the UN in the final days of the conference even helped the media understand that whatever figures major emitters were putting on the table for carbon cuts would lead to an average global temperature increase of three degrees– a recipe for major catastrophes. The western media, in general, did cover the summit with due importance. But, coverage by some journalists from both developed and few fast developing nations were quite focused on their countries. At times, that resulted into biased reports supporting their delegates’ position while criticizing or downplaying others’ sayings. In some cases, it was jingoistic journalism. Reporters who relied too much on their countries’ delegates pushing their own agenda ended up hugging tress and missed the forest.

How about climate change coverage in Nepal’s media; print, broadcast and online? What do you think are our strengths and weaknesses in covering this emerging issue?
Nepal’s coverage of climate change issues, I must say, is at nascent stage, more so in broadcast media. Given the political instability and the crucial phase the peace process is in, it is to some extent understandable that climate related issues get overshadowed. We can have some first hand accounts when it comes to covering climate change impacts that will affect millions of people in the South Asian region, That can be one of our strengths. Water resources is one such example. But treating climate as a ceremonial issue (that is paying attention to it only when conferences take place or, say, when the world is observing environment day) has been our greatest weakness. The media need to wake up to the fact that it is an issue about our lives and the issue has to be conveyed effectively to the people.

Given that this is a specialty field of journalism, we often hear that it is a challenging beat. What has been your experience? In what ways is it challenging?
Climate science has just begun to unfold and even scientists are still scratching their heads trying to make sense of the changes and understanding what the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere has in store for us. While the science is already complicated, global politics and economic competition makes it all the more difficult. “Security” was the first choice of word of the US President Barrack Obama when he tried to explain what climate change meant for his country during the Copenhagen summit. World leaders went to the Danish capital last month to see a new climate treaty but returned having witnessed a new global order– the alliance between the US and emerging economies like China and India while other developed countries were left out in the cold. Given all this, making sense of what is happening in the world of climate change is indeed quite challenging and even more demanding is the job to explain it to general people. More so, to those in the least developed countries. And then it is in the same countries where there is virtually no research on climate change and its impact, which also make our work even more taxing.

How can Nepal’s media improve climate change reporting?
Editors will have to get it high on their agenda and allow their reporters and columnists to specialize on the issue. Environmental organizations and groups will have to do much more to educate journalists and perhaps universities will have to start offering appropriate courses. Journalists on their part will have to give their 100 percent to understand this global issue in a bid to relate it locally. They should be able to sell it also as economic, political or even security issues– because they are. If they just think it in terms of environment– it will remain there somewhere in inside pages and editors will bring them out only on world environment day. True that media need to cater to general interests. But in our parts of the world we also need to create the much-lacking awareness in climate change, and once that happens people will certainly look for climate stories because they will then have begun to realize that it is about their livelihood and their future generation.

What can or should policy making agencies and the academia do in prioritizing and fostering climate change reporting in Nepal?
Conduct researches in as many areas as possible and share the results with the media. At the moment, we only get to hear sporadic studies on glacial meltdown and the rapid filling up of lakes in the Himalayas. What’s happening to biodiversity, rainfall and crop patterns, farm outputs, or, say, spread of diseases? The scientific community and policy makers could perhaps take cue from reports filed by journalists, even if they are not specialized on the topic. It could serve as a lead for further research.

What is your impression of Nepal’s analytical writing on the topic, such as commentaries and op-eds? How does that compare with broadcast programs on the subject?
As I am based in London, I am not in a position to monitor all that is broadcast from Nepal. But going by the print media, even opinions and analysis on the issue are quite rare. One area that some experts have focused in this context is agriculture. For instance, The Kathmandu Post columnist Anil Bhattarai, has been writing quite regularly on it. Officials from Weather Forecast division also write from time to time and I wish more was done by others, especially experts and scientists.

Can you cite some examples of great stories on climate change coming out of Nepal?
I am thinking hard. Yes, Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit recently wrote a piece quite effectively showing climate change is real and is happening in Nepal as well. His writing took readers to places as if they were traveling with him and witnessing for themselves how the changes were taking place and what dangers lie ahead.

How about climate change topics that need serious consideration in our context?
As I explained earlier, many other areas– and not just Himalayan glaciers- need serious attention. We simply don’t know what is happening in those areas while scientific arguments and experiences elsewhere show that changes in other areas like biodiversity, water availability, human health, among others, are imminent.

What have been some of your own fulfilling experiences in climate change reporting and writing?
I wish I could do more of spot reporting as I did from the Everest region in 2006 when freak weather suddenly hit and it snowed heavily even during spring and I developed pulmonary edema (a kind of high altitude sickness) and had to be air lifted. For someone who had been there to make a BBC World Service documentary on the risks Himalayan porters take to reach people from across the globe to the highest places on the Earth, what better experience? Story-wise, it was in 2008 when I was covering the 14th UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland when I could expose a dogfight between the United Nations Development Program and the Global Environment Facility that led to the delay of the preparation of Nepal’s climate change adaptation plan. It was after I got the exclusive investigative piece out, the two donors patched up and the deadline for the preparation of the plan was extended for Nepal.

I have been regularly writing for the BBC Science and Environment online for more than five years now and since last year I have been designated as Environment Reporter, BBC News. Reporting climate issues for the BBC Nepali service is quite satisfying as I can reach millions of those very rural people who are already bearing the brunt of climate impacts but have no idea about climate change. It has been almost one year since I began writing a column “London Calling” for The Kathmandu Post, mostly focusing on climate and the response has been tremendous. But I know I should not be complacent, I have much more to learn and do.

Could you offer some professional tips—some dos and don’ts for climate change reporters?
As I said I myself am learning… But at least what I can say is that this is a very profound subject and reporters will have to take a complete and holistic dip into it. It means rigorous study of the subject and following global developments– both of the science and politics. And, of course, keeping tab of local issues is also equally important, only then you will be able to relate global and the local pictures. Reporters tend to label every weather story as climate change report, which is often not correct. Reason: Weather is a short-term event while climate change is a pattern which demands some time and periodic observation of experts.

You are currently a climate change reporting fellow? Could you explain what it entails and what you have been doing as a fellow?
I have been a Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) fellow for the last two years. The fellowship meant that I could cover the 14th and the 15th UN climate conference. It has helped me stay in touch with national and international experts, scientists, negotiators and officials. It has enabled me to to follow the directions and developments in climate change politics or international negotiations. The fellowship has more than forty journalists from around the world and that means I can follow what is happening in their respective countries on climate issues and how that affects the rest of the world. Basically it has been a great networking.

What led or inspired you to cover climate change?
Environment has been one area I have been consistently and intensively covering since I began journalism more than one and a half decade ago. Wildlife used to be my favorite beat, and I have slept in caves in trans-Himalayan region to investigate, for instance, poaching of Snow leopard. But over the years I have witnessed how climate change is changing our natural environment, and that is how I was drawn into covering this phenomenal global issue. With so much of regional and global politics increasingly surrounding it, as a journalist, there is no looking back, I guess.

Relevant Links
> Watch a video clip of Navin at CCMP here.
> Links to his articles at CCMP.
> BBC News Nepali homepage.

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