An Effective Way to Reduce Emission of Carbon - Term Paper Example

Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Table of content 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 target market 3 3.0 literature review 4 4.0 communication objectives 9 5.0 creative strategies 10 6.0 media plan 11 7.0 Conclusion 12 References 13 1.0 Introduction Carbon tax can be defined as a tax that is levied on fuel contents and more specifically on carbon dioxide emitted when fossil fuels are burnt. Therefore, carbon tax can simply be termed as carbon dioxide tax or can be referred to as CO2. Every fossil fuel including oil, gas and coal have some hydrogen and Carbon atoms. The bond between the Hydrogen and Carbon are the main sources of energy from the combustion of burning fossil fuels. It is important to note that in ordinary circumstances, carbon atoms are usually converted to carbon dioxide when a fossil fuel is burned. CO2 which is an otherwise harmless gas then rises to the atmosphere and remains there trapping heat that has been radiated from the surface of the earth which in turn results to global warming and other climate changes which are harmful (Carbon Tax center, 2012). On the contrary, non combustion sources of energy like sunlight, wind, atomic fission and falling water have no ability to convert carbon into carbon dioxide. For this reason, carbon tax is a tax that regulates use of only fossil fuels. The content of carbon in each fossil fuel is known with certainty and so is the amount of carbon dioxide that is released when the fuels are burned. For this reason, administration of carbon tax is simple as there are no problems in measurements or documentation (Carbon Tax center, 2012).. 2.0 Target market Analysis This Information Marketing Campaign is targeting all business sectors including energy industry, steel industry, mining, utilities, building materials companies, transport and logistics. The IMC is also targeting the households who also use fossil fuels. According to a report released by National Greenhouse and energy Reporting in 2010, emissions amounting to 73% are generated by two sectors namely mining (25%) and Utilities which emit 48%. The other sectors which emit most are energy with 7%, building materials with 3%, transport and logistics with 3%, steel with 4% and energy 7 % (Carbon Tax center, 2012). 3.0 Literature review Global warming refers to a situation where the temperature on the earth surface increases heats up when greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide trap light and heat in the atmosphere of the earth from the sun which in turn increases the temperature on the surface of the earth. This is harmful to plants, animals and even human beings. Greenhouse effect refers to a situation where the temperature of the earth rises as a result light and heat being trapped in on the atmosphere of the earth. This can be compared to heat that has been trapped in a car on a hot day. As the day gets hot, the car gets hot due to light and heat that has been trapped in the car by going through the window but is unable to get out. This is the same effect that greenhouse has on the surface of the earth. The heat and light is able to get into the atmosphere of the earth but it is not able to get out. At times, the temperature could change in a helpful way. For instance, the greenhouse effect may make the earth a better place to live in that without this effect the earth would freeze or would be too hot. The earth would freeze at night since the sun would have set. There would be no heat light and sun heat to keep the night warm. At day time and especially in summer, it would be too hot since the sun would be up in the sky with no atmosphere to filter it and therefore animals, plants and people would be exposed to heat and light. Even though the greenhouse effect has made it possible for people to live better, excess of the greenhouse gases would make the earth warmer than usual and many people, plants and animals would die. They would all die as there would be little food to eat as plants like wheat, corn and other vegetables will not grow under the prevailing conditions. This means that gradually animals, plants and even human beings would all die out of hunger (New York Times, 2012). Scientists have spent decades researching on why is global warming is occurring, they have looked at the events and natural cycles that are known to influence climate but the pattern and amount of warming that’s been measured cannot be explained by these factors alone without the inclusion of the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions (Hardy p27) . To focus more on this, the United Nations formed a group of scientists known as “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” to analyze the latest scientific findings and write a summarized report on what is causing global warming. The first thing that IPCC learned that the greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of about 33 °C (59 °F) (Black p1) .GHGs responsible for this warming, most come from the factories, combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles and electricity production. The most responsible gas for the warming is carbon dioxide (CO2) which causes 39-66%; methane (CH4) from agriculture and landfills especially from digestive systems of grazing animals, which cause 4-9%; and ozone (O3), which causes 3-7%, and deforestation that would otherwise store CO2 ( Hansen, 2009). To begin with, CO2 is one of largest Global House Gas that is causing global warming world-wide. Oil and coal are now the main sources of CO2 emissions. Coal is a source of potential large future emissions as its known resources are an order of magnitude greater than those of either oil or gas, it has declined in most part of the world but it has been increasing in China and United States. According to Black (2011) CO2 emissions from burning fossils fuels have risen by for the last 20 years giving the earth much less chance to avoiding global warming. In 2011, emissions from burning fossils fuel increased by 5.9% bringing continues increase of CO2 since 1990, the baseline year for calculating emissions under the Kyoto protocol to 49% meaning an average rate of about 3.1% per year (UN Climate change Conference, 2011) . Professor Corinne Le Quere, director of the TCCCR at the University of East Anglia while attending UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa the stated that little had been achieved in the last two decades in fighting the risk from climate change."There have been efforts to use more renewable energy and improve energy efficiency but what this shows is that so far, the effects have been marginal," she said. "We need to do something about the 80% of energy that still comes from burning fossil fuels (UN Climate change Conference, 2011)." This sentiments we also ecod professor Chris Rapley, professor of Climate science at University College London where he stated that “Human carbon emissions are certainly disturbing the climate system upon which we depend, and in spite of the economic slowdown, and despite all the efforts by governments, businesses and people to reduce them, our emissions are reaching new highs. The climatic consequences, already emerging, will grow over time, and are irreversible."A new level of decisive action is required now to achieve real emissions reductions. World leaders at the climate negotiations at Durban know the score; the opportunity to act consistent with their responsibilities and rank lies before them. We can only hope that they rise to the challenge (UN Climate change Conference, 2011)." According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the developing countries are going to increase carbon emission by up to 8 % if they purse the loopholes in their pledges. Many campaigners in Copenhagen climate summit had hoped that the carbon emissions would be reduced by at least 30-40% and be in a position to hold the temperature to 2C by the year 2020.However, this will not be possible if the rich countries are not ready to within the legal limits of the global climate deal that was negotiated in Bonn during the UN talks in June 2010. An analysis released by UN in June 2010 prepared by Bolivia indicated that the rich countries’ pledges could be converted into reduction targets as used in Kyoto protocol and when this is combined with carbon market mechanisms as well as calculations of loopholes, there is obviously a large gap between what the scientist have said is the needed cut (30-40%) and what the rich countries have pledged to cut so far. These calculations also indicate that if rich countries don’t use the loopholes, they will be in a position to reduce the carbon emission by at least 4-8% by the year 2017. However, if Bon proposal is adopted, they are likely to increase the emissions by 4-8% above the 1990 levels (Vergano & Rice,2011). According to Hardy (2005), the UN climate chief, the pledges that were tabled by the rich country were not enough to reach the 2C pledge which was made in Copenhagen and were not sufficient for the survival of the poor and the most vulnerable. In his speech, the UN climate chief also noted that with this trend, the greenhouse emissions would increase greatly in the next 10years. In countries like Russia, their emission credits have accumulated to millions of tones as a result of collapse of the Soviet economy in the 1980’s. This and other countries are seeking permission to be allowed to bank this credits and sell to other rich developed countries in the years to come. However, according to Stavchuk of National ecological Centre of Ukraine, selling credits to developed countries will not reduce the carbon emissions causing more global warming. Methane is another GHG which is causing global warming in the world. This gas is in found underground and it is a major component of natural gas, it’s a powerful trapping agent which contributes to global warming by holding infrared radiation near the earth surface. Even though methane is a naturally occurring gas from the wetlands and arctic regions, this gas is also contributed through man-made functions. Methane is released from agricultural animal flatulence, rice paddies, landfills, and in the production and manufacturing of fossil fuels. This gas is 20 times more powerful in its ability of warming compared to carbon dioxide. For instance, a cow does an average release of between 70 and 120 kg of methane gas per year, the negative effect on the global warming is higher since about 100kg of methane gas per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2,300 kg CO2 per year. The same amount of CO2 is produced by burning 1,000 liters of petrol. With a car using 8 liters of petrol per 100 km, one can drive 12'500 km per year i.e. 7'800 miles per year. There are about 1.5 billion bulls and cows world-wide emitting about 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in a year. More over cleaning of rain and tropical forests to get more farm and grazing land is responsible for emitting about 2.8 billion metric tons of CO2 per year(Hensen, 2005).. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) agriculture release 18% of the total emission of greenhouse gases around the world which is more than what is emitted by the transport sector. According to Henning Steinfeld, chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch, livestock are the most significant contributor in today's most serious environmental problems since livestock uses around 30% of the earth’s land surface and 33% of this land surface is used to producing feed for livestock. As forests are cleared to create new pastures which is a major driver of deforestation, mostly in Latin America where 70% of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing (New York Times,2012). Lastly, nitrous oxide gas is another major contributor of GHGs. This gas is produced from agricultural fertilizers in the production of some commodities and also in the emission of some automobiles. Nitrous Oxide is at times used as an anesthetic which is known as laughing gas. This gas warming capability is 300 times more than CO2. Green houses gases which include carbon dioxide, methane, air pollution; deforestation and nitric oxide are the major contributors of global warming and climate change on the Earth. However, these greenhouses gases have different heat-trapping abilities. Some of the gases can trap more heat than carbon dioxide. For instance, a molecule of methane emits 20 times the warming of a molecule of carbon dioxide. On the other hand, Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. However, since their concentrations are lower than carbon dioxide because none of these gases contribute as much warmth to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide does. To understand the effects caused by all these gases altogether, scientists refers all greenhouse gases in the terms of equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. From 1990, these emissions have risen to about 6 billion metric tons yearly of “carbon dioxide equivalent” that’s why global warming is occurring at a high rate (Maslin, 2009). Carbon tax is generally aimed at reducing or discouraging carbon emission. At the moment, the prices of electricity, gasoline and other fuel do not include costs associated with the climate change effects. This omission led to the incentive to come up with a carbon reducing strategies such as use of renewable energy including solar panels and water heaters, low carbon fuels such as bio fuels, energy efficiency through use of high efficiency heaters, air conditioners and high mileage cars and use of conservation behavior such as recycling to reduce burning of trash, bicycling instead of riding vehicles , carpooling which means driving in one vehicle to a place where you are all going and being overall concerned about conservation of energy. However, without the carbon tax, even the above measures will still fall short of the required reduction in the level of carbon emission (Carbon Tax Center,2012). 4.0 Communication objectives of the IMC To create awareness about the carbon tax There is need to create awareness about the new tax to all the parties affected. The IMC will aim at creating public awareness about the reasons that lead to introduction of the carbon tax, the parties that are going to be affected, how much they are going to be charged and the importance of charging this tax (Clow & Baack2007). To influence the attitudes of the consumers towards carbon tax There have been a lot of myths surrounding introduction of the carbon tax. In particular there has been a myth that the new tax on emission of carbon will only hurt the middle class and the poor (Clow & Baack2007) To develop the image of carbon tax There is need to make the public to understand this new tax on carbon emission. The IMC will aim at creating a brand image for this new tax (Clow & Baack2007) To facilitate the successful introduction of the new tax on carbon emission (Clow & Baack2007) 5.0 Creative strategies The main focus of our IMC is to make the public aware about the introduction of the new tax on carbon emission and the benefits that will accrue to them as a result of administering the carbon tax. We intend to communicate to our target market mainly through visuals. For this reason, we intend to use a combination of creative strategies including creating a unique brand image, use of distinct selling proposition as well as other creative strategies (Fill, 2006). Distinct selling proposition We will use distinct selling proposition styles to create awareness about the carbon tax and how its administration will help reduce global warming and other climate changes (Fill, 2006). Creating a brand name We are going to develop a brand image for the new tax on carbon emission as we want all our target market to understand all there is about the carbon tax and why it is important to levy this tax. By demystifying the issue of carbon tax, we are going to be able to reach our targeted market (Fill, 2006). resonance creative strategy Finally through use of displays to demonstrate to our target market how carbon tax is going to work and benefit everyone and hence be in a position to use resonance creative strategy successfully. Through using the 3 creative strategies together, we will be in a position to reach our target market in a way that will excite them and do away with the myths that have been there about implementation of the new tax (Fill, 2006). 6.0A media plan Since we are targeting all members of the public and especially the companies, mining, households and the transport sector, we are going to use demonstrations to show how carbon tax is going to work. We are going to send our company’s representative to workout facilities such as trade fairs, company’s meetings and public gatherings. Another way to that we are going to promote carbon taxis through use of in-store display with a working model and with the working model, there will brochures available for the customers to pick and a big board displaying all the information that the members of the public need to know about carbon tax. The company is also going to use other media such as newspapers and television as they will reach a larger target audience within a shorter period of time. As our target market is very large, we intend to use fliers as they will help reach our large target market (Smith & Taylor, 2004). 7.0 Conclusion From the above analysis, it is important to note that with the increasing climate change and the impact of global warming on our atmosphere, there is need to introduce an effective way to reduce emission of carbon which is a major cause of global warming. Also, there has been a lot of confusion, myth and controversies about introduction of this new tax on carbon emission and hence creating the need to create awareness about the new tax. This IMC plan will be an effective tool to create awareness to all parties affected about this tax hence clear the controversies and myths surrounding introduction of this tax. References Black R, Environment correspondent, BBC News (2011) Carbon emissions divide 'can be bridged retrieved on 1st March 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15834103 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations retrieved on 1st March 2012 from http://www.fao.org/ Carbon tax center (2012) What’s A Carbon Tax? Retrieved on 4th May 2012 from http://www.carbontax.org/introduction/#what Carbon tax center (2012) Why A Carbon Tax? Retrieved on 4th May 2012 from http://www.carbontax.org/introduction/#why Clow K.E & Baack D (2007) Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing communications. Pearson Prentice Hall, Fill, C. (2006), Marketing Communications: engagement, strategies and practice. London: FT Prentice Hall. Hansen J, Sato M, Ruedy R, Lacis A & Oina V (2009) Global warming in the twenty-first century: An alternative scenario Hardy J T (2005) Climate Changes; Causes, Effects & Solutions, British library catalogue publishers: London, UK New York Times (2012) Global Warming & Climate Change Retrieved on 4th May 2012 from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html Maslin M (2009), Global Warming, Oxford University Press; New York, USA Smith, P. and Taylor, J. (2004), Marketing Communications: an integrated approach. London: Kogan Page. UN Climate change Conference (2011) Working together saving tomorrow today http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/ U.S.A Environmental Protection Agency Global warming, retrieved on 1st March 2012 from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ Vergano D & Rice D, USA today Climate change worsens extreme weather events retrieved on 1st March 2012 from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/09/climate-report-links-2011-extreme-weather-events-to-global-warming/1#.T6L3XnlWJ3w Read More