Climate change is low on the agenda of the Bulgarian government and low on the agenda of the general public in the region. The press and broadcast media could potentially have a major positive impact in pushing the climate change agenda. In Bulgaria, climate change tends to be reported largely in terms of administrative responses to EU or UN mitigation policies, it is rather seen as a subject for technocrats and engineers and has so far failed to get the necessary attention both from the media and the general public. A further difficulty is posed by the fact that with relatively small, fragmented markets, there are not the resources available for news media to develop the sort of subject specialism that is common in larger markets. With the current global economic crisis, the media in the country ? both print and electronic - is likely to move even further away from the subject. This project aims to raise awareness about climate change, inspire journalists and opinion formers with the ?glamour? of the issue and encourage them to report and comment on: EU and global trends in combating climate change and the consequences of climate change; Bulgarian and European legislation and policies in place to combat climate change; the political debate in the run up to the COP15 in Copenhagen. The project activities will be implemented with Kapital Weekly newspaper and Business and Ecology magazine as media partners of BSoP.

Location
Project activities will take place in Sofia.

Project Target Groups
The project will focus mainly on the quality national and local print and digital media and will target leading comment, analytical and investigative journalists from business (or energy and natural resources), international affairs and politics departments. Participants will be selected on the basis of their media influence and public profile rather then on their management positions; total of 30 participating journalists. Indirectly, through involvement in some of the project activities and distribution of information, members of the Parliament and politicians from relevant government institutions will be affected by this project as well.

Goal and expected impacts
The project goal is to improve the competence and knowledge of the participating journalists about climate change issues, to assist them in covering the subject in their media, and thus contribute to a more effective media control on the development and implementation of climate change policies and legislation in the country. This way, the project contributes also to improving the knowledge of politicians and raising the public awareness on the issues of climate change, climate change legislation, policies and measures proposed by the responsible institutions in the country.

Objectives and expected results
1. Positive change in the editorial policies of the participating media, by pushing up the topic of climate change on their agenda, for a more effective media coverage and control of the government?s activities in this area.
2. Creating a community of leading journalists in the country and climate campaigners, for a more effective exchange of information and raising awareness of latest developments and achievements in the combat of climate change, as well as for a stricter control over the policies proposed by the government institutions.
3. Creating a mechanism for long-term cooperation between the editors-in-chief, leading comment journalists, government institutions and NGOs, to initiate and support an ongoing debate on the issues of climate change in the country and the world.

Major activities

1. Selecting a group of 30 leading journalists with sufficient national influence and proven interest in climate change to participate in training seminars under the proposed project
2. Providing the group with a set of written briefings on key scientific, economic and political developments related to climate change and the forthcoming meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen
3. Organizing a series of 3 one-day training seminars for the target group, including meetings and discussions with leading experts, philanthropists, politicians
4. Online briefings on climate change development (with the support of climate change campaigners) during and after the project period, sent regularly to the target group
5. Creating a project website and a database with analytical documents, good practices and case studies on climate change
6. Opinion poll and survey of the current state of media?s coverage of climate change issues in Bulgarian media; conducting a comparative analysis of Bulgarian and Central European media.


Partnership with GEF SGP proposals/projects

Sustainability
The key measurable outcome of the project will be the number of climate change related articles published (or interviews broadcast) in the mainstream media by the participating authors. Sustainability in terms of further publications and media coverage of latest developments and political events related to climate change is ensured through the partnership with ?Kapital? weekly newspaper and ?Business and Ecology? journal. Within the project will be created a group comprised of journalists, climate change experts, climate campaigners, NGOs, which will continue to feed information to the journalists from the participating media, to be printed or broadcast.
Politicians and members of the 41st National Assembly will receive information materials on the subject, to ensure their long-term commitment to the issue of climate change and make it a high priority on their agenda.

Project Budget ? total, from GEF SGP, financial, in-kind - all in Bulgarian leva and percent of total
Total project budget: 97 160,00 BGN
Amount requested from GEF SGP: 56 940,00 BGN equal to 58,60% of total project budget
Financial contribution from Applicant: 26 320,00 BGN, equal to 27,09 % of total project budget and 52.02% of the amount requested from GEF SGP
Non-financial contribution of Applicant: 13 900,00 BGN, equal to 14,31% of total project budget