IISD Reporting Services to train Qatari students to cover climate change talks in Doha

WINNIPEG—November 13, 2012—The International Institute for Sustainable Development will train a team of eight top Qatari students to cover the upcoming climate change talks in Doha, as a lasting national legacy of the annual conference that takes place there later this year.

IISD's Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB), the world's leading publication on international environment and sustainable development negotiations, will provide conference reporting services at the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 8) in Doha, from November 26 to December 7, 2012.

IISD vice-president Langston James "Kimo" Goree VI, who is responsible for Reporting Services, said IISD has developed the initiative in association with the designate-president of COP 18, H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, director of the Qatar Administrative Control and Transparency Authority.

Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiya, who is chair of the Qatar National Food Security Program and responsible for media coverage at COP 18, described the training as an ideal opportunity for valuable capacity building on conference reporting. "This initiative will enable Qatar to build a core group of report writers that would be eligible to report at the many conferences to be hosted by the newly built Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, in years to come," he said.

Goree said the initiative also contributes to IISD's mission to promote transparency and the free distribution of information through its suite of knowledge management products and platforms related to coverage of climate change, energy and sustainable development.

"Extending the valuable expertise of this exceptionable group of people through training Qatari nationals has added a new dimension to the work of IISD Reporting Services," Goree said.

The training will begin just prior to COP 18 and give the students an opportunity to shadow IISD's report writers at a live conference and gain hands-on writing experience. They will receive a certificate on completion of the assignment, which will involve publishing a daily English language report during the conference.

Over the past two decades, since the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, more than 200 people from almost 40 countries have worked as ENB writers, primarily PhD students and graduates, as well as lawyers, former UN representatives, government officials and other experts.

IISD chair Dan Gagnier said the institute has a long history of building the capacity of youth to advance the goals for sustainable development through training and internship programs.

"Working with young people to further the goals for sustainable development is one of the most important investments we can make," he said. "I am confident that we not only provide an opportunity for young people to make a contribution to sustainable development but that in this exchange we can learn from their willingness to question our terms of reference."

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For more information, please contact Suzi Malan, IISD Reporting Services training program manager at +27 (83) 293-0481 or Nona Pelletier, IISD manager, public affairs at +1 (204) 958-7740 or cell: +1 (204) 962-1303.