On 10 January 2025, an online Media Day event titled “Local Climate Action and Media Perspectives in EU Partnership” was held as part of the “EU Partnership for Local Climate Action in Türkiye Project.” This project is financed by the European Union and implemented by the UNDP, with the Directorate of Climate Change as the end beneficiary.
The event began with opening speeches from Dr. Ömer Öztürk, Climate Change Expert at Directorate of Climate Change and Meral Mungan Arda, Climate Change and Environment Portfolio Manager at UNDP Türkiye.
Discussion sessions delved into the media’s role in communicating global and regional climate policies, the impact of COP decisions, and the EU Green Deal on Türkiye’s climate strategies. These sessions also addressed the challenges in climate change journalism, including effective communication strategies to influence public behavior and tackling misinformation.
The discussions were facilitated by project experts from UNDP Türkiye, M. Kemal Demirkol, Prof. Dr. Osman Balaban, and Prof. Dr. Ömer Lütfi Şen. The discussions focused on how local authorities’ climate efforts can be better represented in the media and the overall effectiveness of media in this process. The event ended with a Q&A session with responses to questions from the media.
The event provided a significant platform for enhancing the media’s impact on addressing climate change and promoted extensive information sharing and collaboration among stakeholders.