Kuala Lumpur: Climate change has been of international consideration for a long period of time, especially concerning the global temperature increases and the subsequent cascading impacts, such as floods, storms, excessive snowfall, and water shortages, phenomena that have significantly affected many Asian countries.
Besides its physical material effects, climate change has similarly triggered intense psychological upset. The worsening environmental conditions have generated widespread fear, panic, stress, and anxiety among the sensitive segments of society, bringing to the fore the psychosocial dimensions of the crisis.
In countries such as India, for example, recurrent heatwaves causing crop damage to have been directly linked with deteriorating mental health among agriculturally-based societies, more particularly among farmers.
As a response, the United Nations through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular SDG 13, make climate action central to building global mitigation efforts and resilience. Central to the agenda is education and raising public awareness of how to tackle the climate emergency.
Climate change communication is thus a valuable instrument for the attainment of SDG 13. Effective climate information dissemination is essential to enhancing the awareness of individuals and generating behaviour change across Asia.
Additionally, climate change communication is not just informing; it is action-based by its nature. It focuses on engaging people and societies to live sustainable lives and do their bit for the purpose of mitigation.
Emerging of climate change communication
Though climate change's communication has been broadly studied in the Western world, it remains a nascent and growing tradition in most of Asia. It is increasingly gaining visibility, particularly in communication and media studies.
The field of study is new in the region, with limited research and scholarly expertise. As a result, the vast majority of works have relied on Western frameworks.
However, universal principles of climate change communication cross geographical lines. Global North or Global South, the practise relies on the interactive exchange of climate messages by communicators and recipients aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge, and climate-responsive behaviours.
A preliminary analysis of Asian climate change communication literature sees its intersection with three of the pre-eminent scholarly areas such as science communication, environmental and sustainability communication, and political communication.
This relationship is not unexpected. The climate change discourse draws heavily on scientific facts and predictions, which involve transforming complex information - a feature of science communication.
Furthermore, as a pressing environmental issue at hand, climate change is of particular relevance to environmental and sustainability communication. It also gets politicised, given its national policy, governance, and intergovernmental negotiating dimensions -hence attracting attention from political communication scholars.
Localisation of Climate Change Communication
In the Asian context, communicating climate change is inherently multidimensional and mediated by cultural, religious, linguistic, and historical aspects.
This localisation is of primary importance. Messages that fail to resonate with local recipients will struggle to engage. Communication plans must be context-sensitive and culturally aware, more so in such a diverse continent as Asia.
For example, in Muslim societies such as Indonesia and Malaysia, climate communication may draw on Islamic teachings -,such as Maqasid Shariah,- to reinforce environmental stewardship. Muslim people may be reminded of their religiously ordained role of khalifah (Earth stewards) and associate religious responsibility with environmental responsibility.
This initiative has given rise to projects such as green mosques or eco-mosques -,environmentally conscious places of worship,- within the broader framework of climate impact management.
On the other hand, communicators who do not incorporate local values and narratives might have their efforts compromised, as audiences may not be attracted to it.
Overcoming Barriers in Climate Change Communication
Communicating climate change effectively is fraught with challenges. One of the central challenges is that climate science is highly technical and abstract and to the layman might appear too technical, beyond reach, or irrelevant.
Scepticism is another significant barrier. Certain groups of the population still do not believe in the validity of climate science and perceive it as alarmist or ideological.
In less democratic regimes, government constraints on freedom of the media complicate issues further. Governments might try to manage the dissemination of climate information, restricting journalistic autonomy and discussion among the general public.
Another barrier stems from the dominance of Western-narrated storylines, which might not have a good fit with national histories or local Asian priorities. Therefore, communicators need to harmonise international messages and local circumstances to produce successful engagement.
To address these challenges, climate communicator training and development investment is paramount. The training may occur either formally in the form of academic programs or informally in the form of online courses led by topic matter experts.
Asian universities will be best suited to lead the charge. By expanding curricula with special modules on climate change communication, institutions have the potential to create a new set of researchers and practitioners equipped to advance the field.
The involvement of principal stakeholders including academia, scientists, media representatives, non-governmental organisations, and policymakers is required to establish a resilient climate communication infrastructure in the region.
This op ed is written by Professor Dr. Mohamad Saifudin Mohamad Saleh a lecturer from School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
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