Big Climate Conference Draws Interesting Characters And Curious Reporters

Michael Hedges November 9, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

The full range of climate issues have become editorial centers for major news outlets and agencies. Credit Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2007) as a starting point. Then came floods, wildfires, bushfires, famine and rising sea levels of the last few years. These have been magnets for gloomy news coverage.

More than 3,000 reporters signed up in advance for the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, known as Cop27. The conference kicked off (November 6) with a devastating report from the World Meteorological Organization outlining the last eight years of devastation to the planet. Ahead of Cop27, other agencies and advocate groups have been publishing their views and analyses. Much of it makes grim reading.

Nearly every government on the planet sent delegations to Cop27. Environmental and rights NGOs did the same. UN organizers expected 40,000 attendees. Big names - led by US Secretary General Antonio Guterres - have been lined up to speak, hold press conferences as well as those special private meetings. Reporters - with cameras - are at the ready with questions resonating with their readers, viewers and listeners. Granted, some were attracted by the Sharm el-Sheikh resort.

Considerable effort went into including as many reporters and media crews as possible. The Earth Journalism Network (EJN) with the Stanley Center for Peace and Security foot the bill for 20 climate and environmental reporters from low and middle income countries applying through the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP). EJN/CCMP trainers are providing support and guidance. They will be competing with lobbyists. Other country-specific internships have been established for local climate reporters.

Much anticipated by international new outlets is the appearance of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, president-elect of Brazil. Lula, as he is known, defeated right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, “Trump of the Tropics,” a fan of decimating the Amazon rain forest. He was invited by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a week ago. In a slight complication. the official delegation of the Bolsonaro government will also attend, politely, as it remains in office until December. "Brazil will again be treated as a climate power that has always been, from the perspective of the solution and the correct side of history,” said Brazilian Climate Observatory secretary general Márcio Astrini, quoted by Brazilian daily O Globo (November 8). O Globo launched its Um só Planeta (For the Planet) climate portal in March 2021 with a staff of 12.

Unsurprisingly, sidebar issues quickly rose within the conference. An independent freelance reporter - Mostafa Moussa - was detained by state security services, reported news portal Darb (November 7), details not released. Last week reporter Manal Agrama was similarly detained. He turned up in court two days later accused of being a member of a terrorist group, a charge regularly used by Egyptian authorities against reporters and activists. Mr. Agrama had written skeptically about Egypt hosting Cop27, noted The New Arab (November 7).

The same day, three reporters began a hunger strike at the offices of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate in Cairo protesting the jailing of writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah. He was jailed for five years in 2021 for spreading “fake news,” reported Middle East Eye (November 7). And, as Cop27 got underway, reporters and activists expressed concerns of possible surveillance through a mobile app provided by organizers to conference participants.

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