Globalisation and Business Enterprise - Term Paper Example

Globalisation and business enterprise Introduction Companies like Pukeawa Biofuel started to go for innovation of technology in line with finding alternative to fossil fuels as major energy source in the world. Puleawa Biofuel Company for instance started in its production of biofuel from recycled vegetable oil and animal fats in July 2007 as its support to environmental policy of New Zealand concerning the need to use sustainable and renewable energy source (Pukeawa Biofuel, 2007). Pukeawa Biofuel is just one of the companies trying to play in the New Zealand biofuel market. The following companies are key players in New Zealand Biofuels Market: AECOM, AES, Ag Research, Anchor Ethanol Fonterra, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, Biodiesel New Zealand, Carbonscape, Cawthron Institute, Ecodiesel, Flo-Dry Engineering, GNS Science, IPL/Biofuel Testing New Zealand, Lanzatech and many more (Bioenergy Association of New Zealand, 2007). These companies have simple and basic idea and that is to help the environment by relying on the capability of technology to address issues concerning global climate change. These companies have considered innovating possibilities on how to come up with biofuels that are cost-effective, renewable and sustainable aside from their great contribution to minimise pollution and emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, there are various concerns in this area which are discussed in this paper. The production of biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuel is a remarkable issue to be investigated further. For instance, it is clear that companies that continuously produce biofuels have wonderful business opportunity amidst the climate change but they are also faced with other global economic and social concerns. Biofuel is known to affect the economy by indirectly creating impact to other sectors or industries. It is believed that there was an upward spiral increase for biofuel production in international trade and investment in the last few years, but it was linked to 2007 and 2008 global food crisis (Timilsina & Shrestha, 2010). Eventually, there was a problem on this idea in the first place knowing that the production of biofuel will need enough supply of food-based raw materials. Thus, non-food based materials are now widely explored for this concern. The New Zealand energy strategy and policy is a gateway to discover technology that could help the environment especially on the reduction of carbon emission and other greenhouse gases. For instance, there is a new study in New Zealand revealing the potential of growing algae to capture carbon dioxide for greenhouse gas reduction program (Packer, 2009). Many of these studies are widely explored nowadays. However, they are still viewed to compete with food supply and aggravated further by technical and economic barriers (Timilsina & Shrestha, 2010). Thus, companies producing biofuels are enticed by the great business opportunity that the biofuel brings amidst climate change but they are significantly faced with various challenges. However, they finally found the solutions. An ideology to go for innovation The climate change is linked to various social concerns because it demands solutions so as not to further experience its adverse effects in the days to come. The noted great effect of climate change is global warming and this created other significant impacts in the world. Among of these impacts are certainly dealing with economic and social concerns, which involve the issue on higher temperatures, flooding, water resources, health, biodiversity, built environment, transport, and business and finance. These are all the noted impacts of climate change particularly in New Zealand (Ministry for the Environment, 2010). New Zealand as a nation is widely concerned about each of this individual issue. However, it is not New Zealand alone which shows greater involvement on the impacts of climate change. Every nation must be concerned about the need to protect the environment and such can be addressed by creating significant innovation with technology. One such innovation is the creation and use of biofuel. The central policy of biofuels is about creation of jobs, efficiency of the business environment and environment protection (Demirbas, 2009). The government therefore is encouraging business opportunity for this technology among individual, private sectors and investors. This creates opportunity for companies to exist which will be adapting the policies on environmental concerns instituted by the government. In line with this environmental policy, the biofuel companies are creating demands for alternative sources of energy that are cost-effective, renewable and sustainable. Thus, a new business opportunity exists in line with the need to create cost-effective, sustainable and renewable energy sources. This great concern is considered connected to global political economy since the government must be all behind of this. Thus, formulation and implementation of environmental policies are remarkable. Energy policies address environmental issues such as those that include environment friendly technologies and increasing of energy supplies to address the need for cleaner, efficient energy for air pollution problem, greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change (Demirbas, 2009). The intention to go for biofuel is remarkably good. Biofuel is one of those technologies that is significantly viewed to reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gases and it can also reduce dependence on imported petroleum products and fossil fuels. This can create major impacts on the demand for standard petroleum products. It is therefore clear that climate change provides wonderful opportunities to create environmental policies in line with the reduction of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, this also created not only wonderful opportunities for biofuels, but other related technologies that could help reduce emission of harmful gases and the reduction of unfavorable impacts of climate change. This is widespread all over the world and New Zealand is clearly one of the countries adhering to revive and protect the environment. This is certainly good news not only for biofuel companies, but other related companies which are linked with the production of biofuel. The government certainly has great role to be played on this. Global governance is necessary important in order to address the need to handle environmental concerns. In particular, New Zealand cannot solve the issue of climate change alone. Every nation needs to create great involvement to fight climate change and its adverse impacts. These concerns are in line with the ideology of an individual and the nation as a whole. Therefore, such ideology affects the decision of governments, businesses, social groups and an individual. The decision to go for biofuel is based on the idea that humans need this world to continuously survive. Such belief leads to the creation of what is necessarily viewed well and most feasible solutions especially in the midst of global climate change. The acceptance of biofuel therefore is based on the conviction of an individual to go one with the government and its proposed environmental policies. The law of supply and demand However, increasing the demand for biofuel may not prove as a one-shot solution to the problems with climate change. As the world’s number of population increases the demand for more foods and resources continues to go up in number. Thus, productive land is decreasing and this means biofuels actually compete against production of food, industrial resources, nature conservation and many more, which all contributed to the increase of environmental pressures and higher prices for agricultural and forestry products (Stoeglehner & Narodoslawsky, 2009). This is true because as the supply remains constant or even decreases at some point and the demand continues to increase, then the price is highly affected in the process. There is therefore a need to go for more supply so as to stabilise the rapid increase of price. The case of global warming as an important icon to global climate change receives much focus attention from one country to another, particularly in New Zealand where there is a remarkable productive land yet with a higher need to go for industrialisation. There is a need to consider the best priority as basis of economic and social policies to be implemented by the government. This is somehow a dilemma for the government knowing that it needs to consider what is primarily important for its economic development. The question now would be to understand both the economic and social impact for such move. This can be widely understood by understanding some major facts. From economic point of view, everything about price is affected by the supply needed and the quantity demanded. For instance, agricultural sector in New Zealand is faced with challenging choices to pursue biofuel production knowing that it can have an indirect impact on demand and prices for meat and milk (Saunders, Blake, Marshall, Greenhalgh & Pereira, 2009). If this would continue, the prices of basic commodities may constantly rise knowing that their supply may decrease at some point. The energy source may be cheaper but the prices of meat and milk may possibly rise. From economic point of view, industries which are relying heavily on energy source for their production may have an advantage to increase profit because of a lower production cost. In the same way, goods that have direct connection with energy source may decrease in price even though some other goods will also have to increase. Conclusion As the world economy is becoming a big single market, it cannot be denied that the impact of climate change can trigger various social and economic global concerns. Global governance is needed in order to fight the adverse impacts of climate change and this must start from every nation. In this mover it is clear that technology plays an important role. The most widely heard solution is to reduce emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere and one of the ways to do so is to go for cost-effective, renewable, clean and sustainable energy source. Biofuel is the latest breakthrough technology that is viewed to fight against climate change. However, there are economic concerns that need to be considered prior to its full blown acceptance in the market. New Zealand is one of the countries that remarkably have many private organisations which are making good opportunities for biofuels. However, these companies need to consider again various social and economic concerns in order to create stable demand for their innovative products. References Bioenergy Association of New Zealand. (2007). Liquid Biofuels – Information & Resources. Retrieved from http://www.bioenergy.org.nz/liquid_biofuels_about.asp Demirbas, A. (2009). Political, economic and environmental impacts of biofuels: A review. Applied Energy, 86(1), 108-117. Ministry for the environment. (2010). Climate change impacts in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/climate/about/impacts.html Packer, M. (2009). Algal capture of carbon dioxide; biomass generation as a tool for greenhouse gas mitigation with reference to New Zealand energy strategy and policy. Energy Policy, 37(9), 3428-3437. Pereira, A. (2009). Impacts of a United States’ biofuel policy on New Zealand’s agricultural sector. Energy Policy, 37(9), 3448-3454. Pukeawa Biofuel. (2007). About Pukeawa Biofuel. Retrieved from http://pukeawabiofuel.co.nz/ Stoeglehner, G., & Narodoslawsky, M. (2009). How sustainable are biofuels? Answers and further questions arising from an ecological footprint perspective. Bioresource Technology, 100(16), 3825-3830. Timilsina, G. R., & Shrestha, A. (2010). How much hope should we have for biofuels. Energy. Read More