Policymakers, advocacy organisations, and the media have been urged to take proactive measures to ensure that their policies and reporting reflect the worries of those affected by climate change.
According to Dr. Martin Segtub, an expert in climate change communication, various problems and geographic or social impacts on individuals necessitate different approaches to emphasising and resolving such issues.
Geographically, as certain locations are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than others. Both the coastal regions and those in the Savannah would have problems, he said.
According to him, the stakeholders' actions and policies must be designed to address the issues and complaints of the people in these many sectors.
He said that in order to address the resulting inequities, it is also important to pay close attention to the characteristics of the various socioeconomic groupings.
"There are those individuals who are already impoverished, and difficulties with climate change might make their situation worse."
Several reporters attended the session
"And there could be some people who are weak." They may be women who live certain lifestyles, especially in some regions of the nation where they are confined to the home for tasks like farming and cooking, or they could be blind, lame, or ill. All of these factors lead to inequity, he asserted.
He emphasised the need to focus more on vulnerable people, claiming that this is the only way to close the gap of inequities brought on by climate change.
During a recent interview on the margins of a Climate Change journalism workshop at Aburi in the Akwapim South Municipality of the Eastern Region of Ghana, Dr. Segtub, who is also a lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), made the appeal.
The workshop, which was conducted by Penplusbytes, a non-profit, and supported by DW Akademie, aims to increase the competence of the chosen journalists in climate change-related subjects.
However, Dr. Segtub argued that it should not necessarily be assumed that those affected by climate change are victims.
But although they were victims, they also learned skills that might be taken into account whenever a national agreement on how to combat climate change was needed, For the purpose of making decisions on climate change, he said, there is much to be gained from the viewpoints of many individuals, including children.
Dr. Segtub gave journalists advice on how to cover climate change: respect the rights of those who are most harmed and don't make their situation worse by writing stories that serve their own narrow interests.
In spite of their vulnerability and difficulties, he asserted, "we (journalists) must also be seeking for the optimism that we can acquire for them by offering them some decent coverage so that it would not only be about how they are suffering. Additionally, they must discuss how they might help alleviate this worldwide issue.
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