The challenge of climate change to government and media

THE GLOBAL scale of the climate crisis has subjected vulnerable countries to even greater strain. For three consecutive years, the World Risk Index 2024 identified the Philippines as the “most at risk” to extreme natural events.
The year 2024 unfolded a landscape of disaster with 18 tropical cyclones, six of which occurred within a five-week period. The El Niño phenomenon was also felt throughout the country, peaking during the summer months and causing PHP2.63 billion in agricultural damage by April.

This context should urge government to address the challenge with a whole-of-nation approach that includes both short- and long-term measures.
Its geographical location on the Pacific rim has always subjected the Philippines to weather disturbances. But the worsening severity of storms calls on the media to develop reporting skills that presents the ongoing context of climate change.
Highs and lows
CMFR noted a GMA Integrated News account in February that highlighted the inadequacy of the government’s plan and budget to address the issue. The National Climate Change Action Plan provided PHP543 billion or 9.4 percent of the 2024 national budget; but priorities were not aligned to address food security, water potability, environmental destruction, or renewable energy transition. February was fraught with forest fires, landslides, floods and drought, all of which the media from different parts of the country reported with key context and environmental background.
These developments early in the year presented a number of issues and perspectives to helped to sustain further discussion of the long-term environmental crisis. But the media have mostly tracked each disaster as episodes isolated from one another, rather than a conditional situation which should have provoked a range of responses from government and the various affected communities.
Back-to-back storms, lack of environmental context
No other event reflected the escalating effects of climate change than the six consecutive cyclones that battered the country from October until Mid-November, namely Severe Tropical Storm “Kristine” (internationally known as Trami), Super Typhoon “Leon” (Kong-Rey), and Typhoons “Marce” (Yin-Xing), “Nika” (Toraji), “Ofel” (Usagi), and “Pepito” (Man-Yi). The latter four, swirling simultaneously in the West Pacific basin, was described as a “rare occurrence” by the Japan Meteorological Agency and as “unusual” by the United States’ NASA. But Philippine media did not discuss the phenomenon as extraordinary.
The media covered each storm as a separate episode, limiting their coverage to the daily updates on the ground and the subsequent rescue, relief, and rehabilitation efforts. Hardly any Philippine media linked the event to patterns of global climate change and its local effects.
While news picked up criticism of flood control projects, no news team actually revisited any of these flawed flood control projects to present visual and concrete evidence for the public to see. News limited itself to quoting critical statements.
Clearly, climate change had already erased the traditional reference to two seasons in the country, the period of dry and rainy months. While the monsoon rains remain seasonal, storms can occur at any time, with worse impact when they converge with monsoon rains.
Severe Tropical Storm Kristine hit Bicol region in October, traditionally associated with the end of southwest monsoon wins and calmer, cool weather. Kristine submerged the region in the worst flood in decades, pouring two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours.
The change has not triggered wider discussions of the climate crisis and the quality of the Philippine response. The discussion of changing school calendars based on the weather seemed oblivious to the impact of climate change.
News coverage also showed the lack of a global scope. No international experts were cited. There were no references to global efforts to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.
November 2024 also marked the 11th anniversary of one of the worst typhoons in world history, Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) that hit the Visayan islands of Leyte and Samar in 2013. The media did not check on lessons learned and the implementation of long-term strategies to prevent a repeat of its catastrophic devastation. There was little said about efforts to build coastal defense infrastructure. CMFR noted that some news outfits even missed coverage of the commemoration entirely.
Low level response
Newsrooms mirrored the inadequacy of government response. Few journalists have equipped themselves with the knowledge and learning required to report on weather and climate.
In 2023, GMA Integrated News introduced four trained weather presenters dedicated to each of their newscasts. What could have been an upgraded and much improved coverage of weather phenomena turned out to be a short-lived endeavor as the network retained only two of these personalities in 2024.
A 2013 study published in the Journal of Economics and Finance revealed that weather forecasters can “provide an enduring bond and create brand loyalty among viewers.” A 2019 research by Jill Hopke of DePaul University in Chicago showed that “dedicated environmental and/or climate reporters and editors” were more likely to connect specific weather events with climate change in their reports compared to newsrooms that do not have them. Personalities matter in media as demonstrated by the emergence of social influencers.
The decision not to use personalities in the popularization of weather issues and perhaps climate change was a backward stride for GMA Integrated News and for all Philippine media.
Local newsrooms have also dedicated meager attention to the proceedings in the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference held last November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The two-week forum was significant for the Philippines because of the main agenda—the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, which aims to address the financial needs of developing countries to mitigate the effects of climate change. But TV and print did not give the event sufficient time and space. Online news sites had more regular coverage, with GMA News Online providing the most comprehensive account of the negotiations on the climate finance deal. The report recalled the tensions, drama and overtime sessions in reaching the $300 billion deal, which many developing countries still found inadequate. The account also included views from Philippine civil society that despite the outcome, the country’s delegation made sure the Philippines’ position was heard.
The highs and lows of media coverage on climactic and related environmental issues point to the obvious: The Philippine media have to scale up their weather and climate reporting. This calls for a strategic plan for each newsroom, taking advantage of training opportunities so journalists can gain more knowledge and understanding of the ever-worsening climate crisis.
The role of “first informers” require this key effort, a deliberate decision to improve reporting on this reality. Perhaps, a more knowledgeable media can keep climate issues on the news agenda as a way of prodding government and public officials to formulate a whole-of-nation response to the challenge of climate change.