The International Conference on Broadcast Media and Climate Change: A Public Service Remit will be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, 4 - 5 September 2009.

This high-level international event is organised by UNESCO in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), regional broadcasting unions and other international broadcasting organizations to consider a global consensus to raise public awareness on the challenges of climate change.

There is a consensus in most spheres that the challenges of climate change are real. The magnitude of impacts of climate change is huge and permeates every aspect of social and economic development. Nevertheless do the majority of people take practical actions to avoid the potential cataclysm?

Broadcast media has a decisive role to play in providing people with information that would enable and encourage them to take responsibility for their environment and future generations. Therefore, the conference will bring together national broadcasters from both developing and developed countries with regional broadcasting unions, key international broadcasting associations, scientific organizations and climate-related agencies for them to examine the major perspectives on climate change today.

Participants will assess the needs and capacities of broadcasters to disseminate content on this subject, and will explore ways of improving access to quality information on the subject, as well as potential modalities for making resources and training programmes available to media professionals. The aim is to increase the quantity of programmes on climate, enhance the quality of these programmes and ensure their permanence in the broadcast media.

Additionally the conference will serve as a platform for regional and international collaboration to offer and generate solutions to the most urgent questions and the next steps to take concerning climate change and broadcast media, particularly in the developing countries. Such collaboration will empower national broadcasters to fulfill their role – the public service remit – in making climate change and related mitigation and adaptation options better understood by audiences.