Climate change, disasters, and media: Building information resilience in Southeast Asia

When Climate Risk Becomes the Norm: Disaster Preparedness and Communication Shifts in Southeast Asian Media

Within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate action (SDG 13) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) are often discussed separately. However, the experience of Southeast Asia shows that climate change is no longer a mere "environmental issue" but is profoundly reshaping the underlying logic of information ecosystems, public governance, and international development cooperation. As extreme weather events strike coastal cities and rural communities with increasing frequency, what people need is not only early warning systems, but also a media ecosystem capable of continuously providing accurate information, promoting local action, and sustaining social trust.

Southeast Asia sits on the front line of the global climate risk map. UNESCO has clearly noted in its regional projects that rising sea levels and intensifying natural disasters are affecting the livelihoods of millions and causing population displacement. In this context, decision-making information on climate mitigation and adaptation has become critically important. Yet news organizations in most Southeast Asian countries face structural shortcomings in technology, resources, and professional capacity when it comes to climate reporting—this is precisely the core focus of UNESCO's "Climate Change News Media" training program.

From Training to Institutions: The Three-Tier Logic of Media Capacity Building

Traditional development assistance tends to focus on physical infrastructure, such as weather stations or flood control projects. But the training program UNESCO advanced in 2023 across five countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor-Leste—offers a different approach: treating the media as the "software layer" within climate adaptation systems. By strengthening skills such as the use of open data sources, fact-checking, data visualization, satellite image analysis, and cartographic regression, the program helps journalists and editors shift from "event-driven" disaster reporting to "prevention-oriented" climate narratives.

Notably, this training is not a one-off workshop. Between 2024 and 2025, UNESCO extended its support to Cambodia, conducting editorial policy consultations tailored to local environmental challenges and embedding climate reporting into the institutional operations of media organizations. In Timor-Leste, the project partnered with the Timor-Leste Press Association and the Press Council, covering 18 media organizations and introducing a multi-stakeholder process for developing emergency communication protocols. This progression—from skills training to policy dialogue to cross-sectoral coordination—demonstrates a growing sophistication in how development agencies understand the complexity of media systems.

Media in Disasters: Emergency Response and Transnational Collaboration After the Myanmar Earthquake

In March 2025, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar, with effects felt in Thailand. In the face of sudden disasters, information blackouts mean delayed rescue operations. In the aftermath, UNESCO provided emergency assistance to 14 media organizations, supporting their operational continuity and introducing digital and AI tools for post-disaster reporting. More importantly, the project facilitated cross-border collaboration, promoting the sharing of facts and experiences between journalists from both countries through the joint production of investigative and solutions-oriented stories.This case reveals the essence of media resilience: it is not only about whether news organizations can survive a crisis, but also about whether they can safeguard the public interest in complex disaster situations. When AI tools are used to rapidly verify information and satellite data are used to assess the extent of damage, the role of the media shifts from being a simple information disseminator to a participant in disaster governance.

Information Equity in the Global South Context

From the perspective of global development research, UNESCO's actions in Southeast Asia have significance that transcends the region. Countries in the Global South generally face the dual predicament of climate vulnerability and lagging informatization. Climate narratives in developed countries are often based on mature science communication systems, while developing countries need to address more fundamental challenges—from ensuring the safety of journalists to ensuring information accessibility in remote communities. In this process, media capacity building is no longer merely an internal matter for the journalism industry, but a cross-cutting issue that concerns a range of development goals such as education, public health, and agricultural planning.

The ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) framework also provides an analytical language for this intervention. Against the backdrop of growing attention from businesses and investors to climate-related risks, high-quality public information is a prerequisite for assessing these risks. Without reliable media coverage, markets will find it difficult to calibrate climate risk pricing, and society will be unable to form effective oversight of climate policy. Therefore, enhancing the capacity of Southeast Asian media for climate reporting is, in effect, an investment in the region's ESG infrastructure.

Toward 2026: Institutionalized Resilience and Long-Term Transformation

The new phase UNESCO launches in 2026 will cover the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and extend to South Asia. This expansion shows that climate and disaster reporting is no longer seen as an isolated journalistic specialty, but is becoming a core governance function of media organizations. The project includes developing institution-level disaster preparedness and response plans for each media outlet, which is equivalent to embedding "emergency management" into the daily operations of news organizations. At the same time, the deepening of cross-border collaboration mechanisms helps form a regional knowledge network, enabling countries to share experiences on climate adaptation and avoid duplicative efforts.

In the long run, Southeast Asian media are undergoing an identity transformation: from bystanders to actors, from information intermediaries to resilience nodes. This transformation not only responds to the existential challenges posed by climate change, but also redefines the value of media in the global development system. For policymakers, international organizations, and media managers, this means that information infrastructure must be incorporated into the mainstream framework of climate adaptation investment—because when disaster strikes, an accurate, timely, and comprehensible piece of information is itself the most effective disaster prevention facility.