On Friday 22 October, the Guild of Agricultural Journalists of Ireland hosted a climate literacy seminar at the RDS.

The event was sponsored by Bord Bia and Danone Ireland with support from the RDS.

Independent sustainability advisor Ali Sheridan opened the event, delivering a guest lecture where she set the scene and outlined the scale of the climate challenge.

She discussed the problems with companies using ‘net zero’ targets and the problems with offsets. She said that the science needs to be listened to when it comes to climate change.

Following the seminar, Sheridan took part in a panel discussion with CEO of the National Dairy Council Zoe Kavanagh and assistant professor at the School of Communications at DCU, Dr David Robbins.

Zoe Kavanagh said that there is no room for being misleading when it comes to communicating on climate change.

Dr David Robbins said that journalists, regardless of the sector or story angle they are writing about, should ask opinions on climate change in every interview.

Chair of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists Amy Forde hosted the event and said that “journalism and PR have never been more important” as we navigate our way through climate claims, targets, budgets and terminology.

We as communicators will be scrutinised in our handling of this.

Members will be able to re-watch the seminar in the coming days and we will provide a resource sheet compiled by Ali Sheridan, along with the latest research from Bord Bia and Danone Ireland on their sustainability work.