World Radio Day

The year 2025 is a pivotal year for climate change. According to the Paris Agreement, if humanity is to limit global warming, To support radio stations in their coverage of this issue, World Radio Day on 13 February this year 2025 is dedicated to the theme “Radio and Climate Change”.

Why the radio?

In the era of artificial intelligence and the spread of social networks, quality radio remains an extremely important local and global media outlet, as it is the most reliable to date according to statistics from UNESCO and international organizations. In addition to simplifying environmental concepts, radio can, by broadcasting reliable information independent of economic, ideological and political forces, influence listeners’ perception of climate change and the importance of this topic. Whether through recorded programming, live broadcast, or on-demand on new media, radio, with these and many other features, can contribute to shaping public opinion in a way that serves critical public issues.

February 13th , is the date chosen to celebrate radio broadcast, to improve international cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to create and provide access to information through radio, including community radios.

Here is the list of the 13 Ideas for Celebrating World Radio Day.

1. Put more emphasis on facts 2. Review your programming strategy 3. Present realities from elsewhere 4. Inform from an intersectional point of view 5. Start an "On the way to COP30" chronicle 6. Give the audience a say 7. Prepare for the storm 8. Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists 9. Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation 10.  Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically 11. Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues 12. Set the tone 13. Green your radio

To learn more about the World Radio Day Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #13February, #WorldRadioDay.

On 13 February, invite a resource person to come on air.

First, set yourself the challenge of reflecting on and enriching your sources of information on climate change. Use the theme of World Radio Day 2025 to ask your team a few key questions: Are our sources reliable? Do they help with fact checking? Does our radio station have a sufficiently broad and relevant range of information sources? Does our radio have a variety of sources, whether institutions or individuals, including diversity of gender, origin, geographical area and so forth? 

Use the World Radio Day 2025 (WRD 2025) list of "Sources". This resource, created especially for the occasion, is an invaluable tool designed to help you collect data, evidence and information. It will enable you to be better equipped to conduct analyses, find leads for your investigations, write meticulous reports, corroborate figures, inform about measures taken and shed light on facts that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Do you really know what your journalists, assistants, technicians, researchers, digital developers, directors and others expect from you when it comes to radio coverage of climate change? What if the celebration World Radio Day 2025 was the perfect opportunity to find out?

If you do not have the resources to carry out the quantitative and qualitative studies needed to ensure the success of your programme schedule, recruit volunteers or students to interview the people concerned. Prepare a quick survey on your website. Ask them to respond by e-mail and instant messaging. 

What do your radio colleagues want to know about climate change? Multilingual management for your editorial staff?

A more political, economic or social editorial line?

Focus on local solutions?

Are your programmes specific enough?

Are they too general?

Would standard weekly programming be best? Or programmes on specific dates?

How could long-term investigations be financed?

How could interaction with auditors be improved?

In addition to explanations of and solutions to climate change, there are a large number of business stories, daily news items and public interest editorials that intersect with other themes. Climate change and the stock market, the ski industry or the cheese trade; technology, astronomy or legislation; public health, population displacement or elections; antiques, films or music – all of which are examples of intersectionality. Generally speaking, the reliable information you communicate can stand in stark contrast with political communication. Compare the differences between the two based on the data collected by your radio station, and provide information from an intersectional, factual point of view. Highlight similarities and differences. Present situations where nothing moves forward, or even worse, moves backward, whether it concern obstacles to environmental progress, international agreements, voting in assemblies or something else.

On the occasion of WRD 2025, let your audience know that you have already started journalistic coverage of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), to be held in November 2025 in Brazil.

This event is of considerable importance, particularly for those Member States most vulnerable to climate change, a large proportion of which are small island developing States (SIDS). Despite their importance and interest, these conferences are often difficult to access and follow.

First, get to know the COP:

- understanding the organization of the COP

- understanding COP vocabulary

- understanding COP mechanisms

- understanding the dividing lines within the COPs, and the issues and discussion points that will be debated during COP30, in particular concerning global warming and its consequences in terms of impact on the planet.

- categorizing the main documentary resources that will be useful for COP30 coverage and relevant to listeners in the radio signal coverage area.

Announce your editorial intentions on February 13th 2025.

Share the topics you want to cover on air over nine months. For example, what were the outcomes from COP29? How can we prepare ourselves to produce news stories and journalistic investigations on COP30 topics that are adapted to local issues? What are the most important themes for each of your broadcast areas? How can you mobilize your audience and communities for this upcoming event?

Your weekly chronicle "On the way to COP30" can be enriched with "United Nations Climate Change News". Then you will have access to plenty of news to feed into your broadcasts. 

For World Radio Day, encourage your audience to say what climate change means to them. Do not just leave it to the “experts”. Give people a voice and see how affected, concerned or worried they are about climate change.

Do interviews, vox pops and news reports that help your audience to understand the realities, challenges and experience of listeners with respect to climate change. How about organizing an outdoor public broadcast? 

If you cannot broadcast outdoors because of the cost or for security reasons, invite people to call in to the station's switchboard or leave an audio comment ("voicemail") on your instant messaging platform or social network. 

Elicit the opinions of those who have less of a say: women and indigenous or marginalized people. And what about those who do not listen to your radio station:  what are they saying?

Share human stories, not just a stream of data. Some prefer to hear like-minded people in order to take on board the discussions and potential solutions. You can tell real-life stories, broadcast "colourful" statements and share the experience of what is actually happening in your broadcast area.

Hurricanes, floods, forest fires, heatwaves and other such events have become so commonplace that they now make working conditions demanding for broadcasters and media workers alike. In striving to obtain first-hand accounts from affected populations and decision makers, they, too, will be exposed to the same extreme weather conditions as the population in the course of their reporting, be it outdoors or in the studio. Media professionals are often trained to cope with war and terrorism, but not so much with climate events.

Anyone covering climate change, including radio reporters, is potentially at risk as it often calls political, business and property interests into question. UNESCO’s brief on the safety of environmental journalists already provides the data you need to inform your audience about the many kinds of physical threats to which media professionals are exposed, such as kidnapping, arbitrary detention, legal attacks, material damage, threats, online harassment and murder, among others. Interview other media colleagues on February 13th. Ask them how they manage their personal safety and make your listeners aware of just how committed the media are to bringing them information on climate change. You can also prepare a talk show, documentary or interview with public policy experts to inform your audience about the misuse of the judicial system to attack freedom of expression, or about the preventive mechanisms and safeguards to counter attacks on the journalists covering climate change. If you prefer, you can focus on the violence used to silence activists and lawyers, if it seems more feasible in the context of your radio station.

On World Radio Day, it is essential to recognize the power of journalists and broadcasters to expose climate disinformation, promote informed dialogue and raise environmental awareness through the production of accurate and reliable information. Strengthened fact-checking processes and coverage of authoritative scientific sources are essential to help the public grasp the complexity of the triple environmental crisis we face. It is equally important to examine the governance of digital platforms to ensure that they act transparently, are held accountable and diligently mitigate the risks posed by climate disinformation. We all have the capacity to help users become critical thinkers and strengthen their resilience in the face of climate disinformation.

On 13 February 2025, talk to climatologists and other experts about the impact of disinformation on their work and on society's overall understanding of climate change. You can also interview citizens who have been misled by disinformation seen online about climate change. Finally, you can interview fact checkers and platform governance experts to understand the measures they are implementing to combat climate change disinformation on a large scale.

You will find here the UNESCO Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms in several languages, as well as many other sources of information. A video also illustrates the challenge.

Broadcast nature ambient sounds on February 13th, 2025. Do not limit yourselves to human voices. 

All day long, broadcast the sounds of nature in your programmes, newscasts, debates, chronicles, reports, interviews, music and so forth. Sounds can vary from lava to wind, forest fires to floods and storms. These are all sounds that need to be heard on air to make your coverage of climate change as vivid as possible. 

Use the "Sound Library" public list published for World Radio Day 2025. 

To prepare for this special sound day, think ahead. When you are out and about, record ambient sounds (simply by opening the microphone for a minute). You can also ask your listeners to send to you by voicemail sounds they have recorded themselves. It is also possible to broadcast sounds that do not come from you or your audience, using online sound libraries (in which case, for the sake of "radio honesty", you should specify on air where the sounds come from). 

World Radio Day 2025 can herald the start of a new era: greening your radio! 

What if you applied the theme of "Radio and climate change" not only to the airwaves and to other people, but also to you in your daily life at the radio? Talking about climate change without taking action does not give your radio station the same legitimacy as being an agent of change yourself. 

On 13 February, launch formal discussions with staff (production staff, technical staff, administration staff and so forth) and key radio station managers. Ask yourselves the question: "How can we make our radio station more environmentally friendly?" Identify the main sources of pollution of your radio station. For example, observe how the use of your equipment or your business travel pollute. Then put in place sustainable actions to make your radio station more environmentally responsible on a daily basis.

Get help from WRD 2025 partner radio networks and from climate change specialist partners in your broadcast area.