Climate Crossroads Towards Precautionary Practices: Politics, Media and Climate Change

The Climate Crossroads project is concerned with the relationship between 1) climate politics, 2) the media coverage of climate change and climate politics, and 3) public opinions about climate change and climate politics. The project is analyzing different aspect of the Norwegian climate politics and its relationship to other areas of policy, including Norwegian oil policy and Norwegian policies on foreign aid and development. One sub-project analyzes how political issues related to climate change are articulates in the manifestos of political parties in Norway and in other countries, while another analyzed the role of climate politics in the strategies of political parties during the 2013 parliamentary election. Other sub-projects has investigated the status of climate refugees in international treaties. The project has charted and analyzed the media coverage of a broad range of issues related to climate politics, including the coverage of the UN climate summits (COPs), climate justice, the role of climate issues in the Norwegian elections, and the discussions of climate change in the blogosphere. The project investigated in depth the media coverage of climate issues during the 2013 campaign for the election to the Norwegian parliament. In 2012, the project undertook a survey of public opinions on issues related to climate change and found, among other things, a low trust in politician?s ability to reach the goals they have set for mitigating climate change. While Climate Crossroads focusses primarily on the Norwegian situation, the project also has one sub-project in Bangladesh on the coverage of climate change politics in Bangladeshi media and a sub-project in South Africa about the communication of climate change policies to vulnerable people in rural areas in the Western Cape region.

Climate Crossroads will study the challenges faced by key policy makers and communicators when attempting to transform climate knowledge into climate action, and how communication and interaction between media and political actors can contribute to a prec autionary general public and preventive measures when it comes to climate change. In spite of scientific uncertainty at some levels, there is a growing consensus in the IPCC on anthropogenic Climate Change (CC). The UN (e.a.) Article 3.3 the UN Framewo rk Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognizes the importance of the precautionary principle: (The Parties should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize the causes of Climate Change and mitigate its adverse effects. Where ther e are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing such measures). The Norwegian Parliament adopted the precautionary principle as one of two superior principles for Norwegian environmental politics (1996-1997). This emphasizes the principle as a matter of precautionary politics. Thus scientific uncertainty, in the case of possible adverse effects, is a precondition for establishing the precautionary principle. The project wi ll explore (i) the Norwegian official climate policy and visions of alternatives to this, as seen by scientists, media actors and the general public; (ii) how public opinion is influenced by politicians, scientists and media actors and their responsive strategies of the public (iii) the stated norms of scientists and journalists concerning climate change (iv) the relationship between climate change, development, rights and media representation in the global South. The project will through transnational co-operation with Media Climate and other partners allow for comparative perspectives.