When you are connected, you are not alone. Cox supports cspan as a Public Service, along with these other television providers. Giving you a front row seat to democracy. Up next, the chief climate officer from the u. S. Agency for international development, jillian caldwell, on using media to help organizations build credibility and trust and provide access to critical information systems. The discussion also touched on ways the media can promote action on Climate Change. Hi everybody, it got quiet in here, hi, how are you. Good to see so many faces, and although we cannot see their faces there are plenty of people joining us online today as well. It is great to have you here as well. Welcome to our event, and action, how media and Behavioral Insights can address the Climate Crisis. It is great to be here, i am an anchor with abc news pieced here in washington d. C. I am also a senior journal miss the in terms of the media we journalists are focusing on communities and countries, and the people who are affected around the globe by the Climate Crisis. It is an honor to be here, to be able to speak today, to listen to everyones stories, and to meet in person and hopefully virtually as well. So many people that are representing these communities on the frontlines of Climate Change. With every passing year, and it feels like with every passing month and weak, even, we are facing ever more strongly the realities of the Climate Crisis on this planet, in our communities, in our countries. Especially for those of us lucky enough to be based here in the United States, in the global north, where we are starting to feel those even more, and plenty of people around the world tell us this is what we have been seeing for a long time. Hange, my just a quick story of, the way that we all begin to experience Climate Change, my original home is back in california in the San Francisco bay area, i remember a couple of years ago i got a phone call from my mother, this was back in 2020. She was going through what is now kind of the unofficial fifth season in california which is called smoke season. You might remember that iconic picture of Golden Gate Bridge back in the fall of 2020. Completely shrouded in smoke from the wildfires nearby. My mom called me and she was saying that her and my dad were seriously considering leaving the place that i was born, and grew up. It felt like it was becoming unlivable. From wildfires and droughts, as weve seen now, floods and rains coming into california, it was becoming a serious worry for them. They said for the first time it felt like Climate Change was coming for them, for the first time in their lives. You know, it is becoming a wake up call not just for my parents and me, it is communities, politicians, businesses that really business, as usual is not coming back. Luckily, in terms of news business, what we are seeing now is a flood of new journalists coming in to cover the Climate Crisis, despite the turmoil we are seeing in the news industry theres plenty of colleagues coming on board. They are here to help hold politicians to account, governments to account, businesses to account, to help communicate clearly what is going on in the change that we are seeing in our world. To also document those effects that we know what is taking place. Also, to clearly explain the actions that need to be taken in order to combat the Climate Crisis. Personally, i am looking forward to seeing if we can go even further than what we have already done. If you look back, it wasnt long ago, to the covid19 pandemic and the crisis, then, it felt like every single journalist became overnight an expert on viruses, to be able to explain to everyone what was going on. And it wasnt just journalists who were there, it was across the board, if you are a business journalist, a sports journalist, it was affected by what was happening with covid19. Just think, if we did the same thing for Climate Change. If we made every journalist start to realize what theyve uncovered. This goes far beyond just journalists, they also understand the importance of media in this time of Climate Crisis, where we are here to reflect on what specifically media can do to support those in the countries that are most affected by Climate Change. My colleagues understand how media and Behavioral Insights can create this kind of measurable change. We have an exciting panel to discuss. We will be introducing them as we go today, so i am really pleased to have them here. First i want to introduce Gillian Caldwell the chief climate officer, and administrator. Welcome. Thank you i hope everybody enjoyed earth day and got a chance to spend time outside, and perhaps experience this unprecedented pollen count speaking of Climate Change, ive never had allergies. I think that is what i have now. They are not fun. He wonders this is a very important conversation. I think we are all aware that we need government policy and regulatory action to tackle a crisis on this scope and scale. We really cant afford to ignore the opportunity that media and communications and behavioral change presents and the context of this crisis. We have already heard a Little Something about the ipcc, i will not spend much time on this but if we start with the bad news, current emissions reduction and financing levels, and adaptation efforts are woefully insufficient to deal with the enormity of the crisis that we are now facing. The recent ipcc report, which summarizes the overwhelming scientific consensus, and called itself a code red for humanity, made claim that the global commitments combined will not reduce emissions at the scale needed to help keep Global Warming to the critical threshold of 1. 5 degrees celsius. That is just the commitments, meanwhile very few countries are keeping them. Global energy admissions rose by 1 in 2022, when we know that Carbon Emissions at large need to beat falling by at least 4 a year to ensure that we have a chance of keeping Global Warming within safe limits. As a result of our inaction, it child born today is likely to suffer on average, many more climate extreme events in their lifetime as their grandparents did. The status quo just does not cutting it. We need to significantly increase the scale, and ambition of our efforts to tackle Climate Change across the globe. The only way we can do that is if we have enough people demanding changes from their governments, from companies, from financial institutions, that will drive the big systemic changes that we need. And the media is one of the most powerful tools that we have for driving this type of social and political movement, and sustaining it through transparency and accountability. I know this from personal experience, throughout my own career, i had the opportunity to really, in the early days, pioneer the whole concept of video advocacy, as it was then known, and i lead a global undercover investigation into the russian mafia, and their involvement and trafficking women for forced prostitution. What you see here is a still from the under cover footage that we captured, a woman saying to someone from the mafia, who is trying to recruit her, this was in an apartment in moscow. Its just that i heard a lot of girls go abroad and they never make it back. This film that i produce, the first one i ever produced was actually very highly catalytic for many reasons. Not least of which the fact that we were talking about russia, a country of strategic interest to the United States, and white women, honestly. It did catalyze global and systemic policy changes across the world, and quite a lot funding to tackle the pm of trafficking for fo prostitution. And then have opportunity to ss the executive director of witn where i helped pioneer t field of socalled video advocacy. Believe it or not, before awas, time when we had the internet in our hands. Cameras in our hands. When witness was first founded we were donating video cameras at cost 1800 dollars to human Rights Groups that could afford it around the world, with the notion that seeing is believing. See it, you can film it, you can change it. I am deeply passionate about the power and potential of media, to drive change. I am really excited about what we can do at usa, to embrace that power and potential. As carl mentioned, i am the chief climate officer, and we have launched a whole of Agency Strategy that will take us through 2030, in a first ever attempt to really double down on the Climate Crisis. Carl was talking about what it would talk like for journalists to integrate insights, and observe what is happening and the same is true at usc whether you are working in humanitarian affairs, or democracy, rights and governance, you are seeing the impact of Climate Change in your own terrain, and recalling for every Mission Bureau and operating unit to getserious about tackling the crisis,d e context of our strategy. What you see here is a high looking at mitigation, we are looking at onwe are looking at capitalizing finance, and we are thinking not just about the direct actions more indirect, systemic changes that we need to reall advance action. In the last th deep gratitude to congress, we almost doubl investments in tackling the Climate Crisis. And we worked some of the important contexts. Responding t devastating flo pakistan, launching new efforts to conserve the amazon rain forest, the lungs of the planet, and launching a called to the private sector to invest in Building Communities resilience to Climate Crisis. But given the scale of this crisis, we have only scratched the surface of what we will need to do if we are going to change the way the world works, and safeguard the process weve made over the past 60 years since we were founded. So, what role should media and communications play in our climate efforts . I think it falls broadly into two categories. Deploying campaigns and communications to drive behavior change, and increase the resilience and adaptation of the communities we are working to support. The other is leveraging media and communications as a tool for accountability. Okay, so this is an ag from our health campaign, which is really whaweave begun to focus the most on the powean potential of driving behavioral change through communications. Have really evolved this work over the last40 years and generated significant learning and insights on at works and what doesnt. For example, in partsof africa, such as you are seeing here, u. S. Aid has helped run campaigns to do stigmatize hiv and a. I. D. S. , and normalize seeking treatment for infection. This has helped drive behavior change which led to significant increases and treatment initiation, and reengagement among key populations, including young men who were often reluctant to seek treatment. It has also been a very important tool as part of a broader strategy to help bring the hiv, its crisis under control. We have help support media campaigns and target interventions to change behavior in other areas as well, hand washing, vaccination, this specially most recently, reproductive health, and nutrition. Weve got some takeaways from her work in the Health Sector that would integrate into our climate work moving forward. First of all, communications based behavior change such as mass media are effective when they form part of a much broader plan, for example, combining the hiv aids awareness work with policies, to increase access to health care. And open clinics, and impacted committees. Not surprisingly, we have also learned that this kind of programming is going to be most effective when it is developed with local writers, local designers, local actors, and artists. So it really parallels the lived experience and culture of the communities that you are trying to communicate with. Finally, Research Demonstrates that repeated exposure to messages is really critical to delivering impact. So we can and should incorporate these insights from our Health Programming as we seek to scale our own efforts across the agency to tackle the Climate Crisis, this would, for example, increased support for conservation efforts, renewable energy, and the whole range of individual decisions that we all make every day, including whether we are going to choose low carbon transportation or not, what kind of diet we eat, are we eating local . You know, have we moved towards a diet that is heavier in vegetables house compared to meats, which we know drives substantial Carbon Emissions, and preventing food waste because food loss and ways are huge drivers of the crisis. When it comes to behavior change, i think it is also important to note it its populations in the global norms that our primary drivers of Greenhouse Gas emissions. We are the ones that most need to change our ways. And i think we could all step up in that way. Alongside our work to push governments to implement the policies and regulations we need to tackle the crisis. Its actually not going okay. This really interesting project we have engaged with and africa, as well. We launched artnship with disney and a kenyabased Conservation Organization called wili directs to produceonal geographic of kids africa, which is a part celebration television sey produced entirely in africa. By af storytellers casing the stories, leadership and expertise of local coationists. The idea is these stories will amplify Young African voices, to inspire the paris and their family and community, with ways to preserve the world around them. The project also includes outreach activities through schools, youth groups, conservation centers, and communities with the goal of developing a passionate compadre of youth leaders with the motivation to protect their continent and the world around them. This is another image reled to communications that are so critically important. Asell know, Climate Change is making disasts ke floods andtos much more frequent and sever. Media and communications can play a Critical Role in increasing the resilience and reducing the disaster risk. We have a long history of supporting Early Warning systems. One of our longest running investments is of a famine Early Warning system network. For nearly 40 years, we have been a leader in Early Warning for food and security, which is of course, a challenge that is only being exacerbated by the Climate Crisis. Fusenet uses data from earth orbiting satellites to monitor and forecast climatic conditions in the country that covers. This information is then used to develop forecasts for a number of people who will say based severe Food Insecurity in the coming months, which in turn helps the humanitarian community and usaid, ourselves, deliver that lifesaving emergency assessments. Through a partnership with the National Osha graphic and atmospheric administration, noah, as well as the haka Logic Research santa, weve developed and implemented a flash flood Guidance System that enables National Authorities to monitor and provide a flash flood Early Warnings to more than 3 Million People. In 67 countries around the worlds. Yet, still, one third of the worlds population lacks or any warning systems. Not surprisingly, the biggest gaps are in the countries where we work. To address those gaps, you and secretary general launched an Early Warning for all and should of which has helped galvanize global efforts. Media can play such a Critical Role and getting that timely actionable lifesaving information to people in harms way. We know from my own experience, even 24 hours notice of an extreme weather event, saved lives and livelihoods. Media can also play a role in supporting proactive planning, to reduce risks in the first place. But we have to acknowledge this berries. Because, in many countries where we are working, media partition is lack the knowledge and skills to report on the complex issues that we are describing. They may lack access to technology they need to provide reporting. And, in order to address that constraint, we partnered with the United Nations office for disaster risk production, as well as to strengthen the capacity of broadcast media organizations in 20 countries across africa, asia, the middle east and the caribbean, to really help them better fulfill their role in that kind of chain of communications and Early Warnings. Equipping radio and television outlets with information to help them disseminate the disaster risk, reduction, solutions, on a program of topics from food and water security to the preparation for the climate disasters as they become more and more severe. We are, of course, encoura