1. Lecture 6: Communicating Climate Change: Stakeholder Perspectives 27 th Oct 2011

2. Climate Change: Advantages and Disadvantages for Different Stakeholders Some stakeholders may benefit from climatic shifts, such as for agriculturist, increased agricultural production in areas where growing seasons could be lengthened In other areas, rising sea levels due to climate change may disadvantage coastal locations by moving shorelines landward and altering shoreline ecosystems. Local officials and planners in many coastal locations will be increasingly asked to minimize the potential effects of sea level rise in their jurisdictions while also continuing to manage ongoing population growth and development.

3. Climate Change and Business Climate change exposes businesses to an array of risks and opportunities i.e. : 1. Where the business is located? 2. What they are doing? 3. What their priorities are?

4. Why Engage and Communicate? Communicating how a company is managing climate change How risks are minimized Opportunities exploited and solutions developed Why online? Businesses are no longer limited to providing static snapshots of their actions and achievements in relation to carbon management and climate change, and are starting to development more dynamic and responsive ways of disseminating information

5. Engagement and Communication in Practice In practice, there are many ways in which businesses may choose, Or are in some cases required, to engage with stakeholders and communicate progress on climate change: 1. Awareness-raising – An important foundation for any business serious about climate change is raising awareness 2. News – With climate change and related topics constantly in the news, it is sometimes difficult (and certainly time- consuming) for staff to untangle important and useful stories from the background noise 3. Good practice examples – Most businesses will have particular activities and actions associated with climate change that they are proud of, but not all of them necessarily communicate this effectively to their stakeholders

6. Engagement and Communication in Practice 4. Risks and opportunities – Anticipating the risks and opportunities presented by climate change has become an important part of business planning 5. Behavioural change – Perhaps the ultimate goal for any company who want to take a real lead on climate change issues is to become established as thought leader that can effect wider behaviour change

7. Putting Engagement and Communication at the Centre of the Process The challenges created by climate change are complex and wide- ranging, and the processes for dealing with them efficiently are still evolving Stakeholder engagement and communication are increasingly central to effective management of climate risks

8. Scientists and Decision Makers The process of communication of complex scientific information to policy makers, that is, the transition from scientific information to Socio-political knowledge is a difficult task. This difficulty is Compounded When knowledge production is not synchronized with the increasing speed of information production

9. Tourism stakeholders’ perspectives on climate change policy Climate change was not of high priority to those tourism stakeholders Interviewed in New Zealand, but they expressed concern about the planned carbon tax to be introduced Tourists could also play a role in this process, for example by participating in carbon-offsetting schemes, supporting new Technologies (e.g. hydrogen cars) and by actively engaging in energy-efficiency measures (e.g. switching off unnecessary lights in their hotel rooms or the frequent use of cycles for short journeys)

10. Carbon Marketing and stakeholders competition Lay's potato chips in the United States and Walkers crisps in the United Kingdom. The story behind the similarity is that both brands are owned by PepsiCo. But a subtle difference sets them apart. Each bag of Walkers crisps carries a label stating that 75.0 grams of carbon were emitted to produce a 34.5 gram bag of chips In 2007, Walkers became the first major food brand to display a carbon label on its packaging. The label was the result of collaboration between PepsiCo and Carbon Trust, a British- government-funded non-profit that works with businesses and the public to transition to a low-carbon economy

11. Google and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 3,000 organizations from across the globe voluntarily measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies Corporate action on climate change was raised further in 2010 when Google added companies’ CDP Leadership Index scores to the ‘key statistics and ratios’ section on its Finance pages.