A workshop on climate change for 16 selected journalists has ended in Aburi with a call on them to focus more on reporting on climate change issues.

The three-day training which was organized by the Penplusbytes and funded by the DW Akademie under its climate crisis journalism project, was aimed at enhancing the knowledge of journalists on issues of climate change and how to tackle it and also be able to build their capacity in the subject matter to enable them conduct in-depth and investigative reporting on climate –related issues.

It was also aimed at equipping the selected journalists with the requites skills of becoming advocates of climate change in their fields of work and the need to be ready to also impart the knowledge acquired to other colleague journalists.

In an earlier press release by the Penplusbytes, it quoted the Reuters Institute as saying the media can do a lot more in shaping public understanding of climate change and public policies. The poor perception of the subject by both editors and journalists can be reshaped through training.

The three-day training session was delivered by climate change experts and seasoned journalists in the environment and climate fields who were engaged as resource persons to expose and orient the selected journalists to the intricacies of climate change, international best practices, trust building, and addressing disinformation, among other topic areas.

One of the trainers, Jerry Sam said, “It is imperative to fight the growing climate crisis with a multi-pronged approach and this training has helped equip the selected journalists with the requisite knowledge and skills to inform, educate and shape public discourse on the climate crisis in a responsible manner, enabling the people to act and shape the clean, green and sustainable climate for the future and its generations.”

The trained journalists will be mentored by seasoned experts and will go through some refresher courses that will be delivered in a hybrid format (both virtual and face-to-face engagements).

Participants were excited about the training and hope to focus more on climate change related issues so as to help activists of climate change raise the awareness about its effects.