About Lensa Iklim
In March 2022, Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY) funded by the European Climate Foundation (ECF), launched Lensa Iklim, a climate and energy journalism program in Peninsula Malaysia to upskill and empower Malaysian journalists and mainstream news media to improve climate change and energy transition reporting.
The Problems and Challenges We See in Climate Journalism in Peninsula Malaysia
- Lack of in-depth climate and energy transition reporting in Peninsula Malaysia.
- Climate stories in Peninsula Malaysia are under-reported, have an event/disaster-based reporting trend, are sometimes repetitive and have a one-sided angle as they are predominantly framed by finance and lack the human lens.
- Data accessibility and availability are significant challenges to require crucial information and experts (sometimes on such short notice) for accurate, substantiated, and unbiased climate and energy transition reporting.
- Major mainstream news media do not have an environment or a climate desk, or dedicated editors specialising in these matters. Hence, time and extra funding are serious issues to adequately decipher the core of climate stories, such as the science behind climate and energy, governmental policies, international reports, and even legal documents, to name a few.
- There is a gap in incentives and networking for news media to accelerate climate and energy transition stories.
Maintaining readership on climate stories requires a reimagination of storytelling and the gaps above address.
How Lensa Iklim Aims to Address the Problems and Challenges
Lensa Iklim was formed to empower journalists in Peninsula Malaysia in climate crisis and energy transition reporting. The long-term aim is to strengthen climate communication in Malaysia, under the Right to Information objective, thus increasing the public’s climate literacy. The programme also has a short-term goal to increase the capacity of journalists, in the news media and newsroom sector, in Peninsular Malaysia on climate crises specific to the energy sector and “Just Transition.” Since the inception of the programme in 2022, we have almost completed these milestones:
Capacity building for journalists for climate and energy transition through workshops. Journalists are taught essential climate and energy transition topics, such as climate policies and governance, the IPCC report, basic ESG reporting, and COP UNFCCC process and geopolitics, as well as building grant writing skills and data story pitching.
Mentorship for the publication of climate-energy stories. Mentorship by experts is currently ongoing for journalists publishing climate-energy stories in January-February 2023.
Publication of a year long research report “Climate-Energy Transition Media Reporting in Peninsular Malaysia.” This report aims to analyse the challenges faced by journalists and newsrooms reporting climate-energy stories in Peninsula Malaysia. This report runs a data analysis on the climate and energy transition reporting of the news media in Peninsula Malaysia, with supporting analysis of the interviews from journalists and editors of various news media. It is set to be published early 2023.
Climate resource hub. The hub is currently developed to provide a guide and breakdown of topics, a list of experts and critical climate and energy policies and regulations.
Why Just Peninsula Malaysia ?
The main media that we are looking at are housed in Peninsula Malaysia. Furthermore, the social-cultural and political issues in East Malaysia vary drastically from that of Peninsula Malaysia, therefore, it would only be fair to provide East Malaysia with an analysis of its own with a voice that understands and focuses on these issues.
