Carbon Tax: Promotions Management - Term Paper Example

Carbon Tax: Promotions Management 1.0 Executive summary Kim Media is an advertising agency whose core service is to design advertisements for various organizations and ensure that this information has reached the target audience at the right time and in the right form. This firm has been contracted by the Australian federal government to create awareness of the newly introduced carbon tax among all stakeholders in the business environment. It is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that people have not only known of the existence of this tax but also have accepted it and are willing to play their part in ensuring that it is effectively implemented. This is a great task which requires that the firm comes up with strategies that will ensure that all communication objectives have been achieved (Trevor, 2009). In the recent past, global warming and climate change have been on the rise, thanks to the increase in the use of carbon as the main source of energy in production of goods and services. This has had negative impacts on the environment especially the fact effects of climate change. Low land regions have been submerged as a result of the rising of the sea level due to the melting of polar ice sheets. Moreover, desertification is becoming a norm in parts of the world. Areas that border arid regions are slowly being transformed into deserts because of reduced precipitation which is a result of global warming. It is for this reasons that the government decided to introduce a levy that will discourage people from using carbon as the main source of energy (Young, 2010). This tax has not been mutually accepted by the public for a number reason. The main reason for this reluctance is misinformation concerning the tax, its cost and benefits associated with it. Many people have been made to believe that this tax is just but a mechanism being used by that government to get money from the public. Others are claiming that the tax has no benefit and that if there are any, they are so insignificant that it is not worth paying tax for them. In this report, Kim Media highlights and explains how it is going to use various media to educate the public about this tax, influence their interest and ensure that they have developed a positive towards carbon tax as the most appropriate mechanism of reducing emission of greenhouse gases, hence saving our environment. 2.0 Introduction Over the years, the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere has been increasing. This trend has posed great danger to the environment mainly due to the greenhouse effect that this high levels of carbon dioxide have on the earth surface. This has caused a persistent increase in the temperatures of the earth’s surface, a phenomenon known as global warming. Global warming is not favorable to the environment because it causes changes in climate, melting of polar ice thus endangering the lives of people living in low land areas among other negative consequences. It is for this and more other reasons that the government of Australia introduced the carbon tax so as to discourage firms from emitting this harmful gas. In Australia and around the world, climate change is contributing to transformation that is impacting on activities that generate greenhouse gas emissions, how energy is generated and used. Although a legally binding agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 was not established at the December 2009 climate change conference in Copenhagen, a political agreement, the Copenhagen Accord was developed. In this accord, it was agreed that all countries were to contribute in ensuring that a global rise in temperatures does not exceed a 2°C increase. Organization’s stakeholders which include governments, investors, customers, the public and employees are therefore expected to respond to this by performing environmental impact assessment of all projects before they are commissioned, (Cch 2009). A carbon neutral target can be used by organizations to demonstrate their commitment to ensuring that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to an environmentally favorable level. This target can be used to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also to offset them. To support and enhance the move these organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, standards must be set and followed strictly. This also enables the comparison of efforts made by different organizations in reducing and offsetting these emissions. Energy efficiency has emerged to be the cheapest way of reducing these emissions although some organizations are opting for the purchase of carbon offsets to meet a carbon reduction target, (Cch 2009). The Australian federal government has gone ahead to enhance this carbon reduction process by introducing a carbon tax. This tax places a price on carbon such that every organization that uses carbon as the energy source for its operations incurs a certain cost over and above the cost associated with other sources of energy. This will motivate organizations to seek for alternative sources of energy which are not as harmful to the environment as carbon. Besides, organizations which will be unable to use alternative energy sources will have carbon tax discourage them from wasting energy. This will have a positive impact on organization as they will be able to adopt energy efficient methods of production and thus report improved profits from operations. 3.0 A target audience segment analysis The target audience includes manufacturers, those in the service industries and consumers of products. Manufacturers are those business people who produce goods that are needed by the public. They form an important target audience because their activities do global warming directly or indirectly. This arises from their use of fossil fuels as the source of energy which is indeed a big contributor to global warming (Maslin, 2007). Those in the service industries as well as consumers also contribute global warming by always demanding of the products whose production leads to emission of greenhouse gases. In this campaign they are encouraged to demand for and only purchase environmentally friendly products. 4.0 Literature review. 4.1 Global Warming: Causes, Effects, and the Future In this book, Mark Maslin (2007) explains what global warming is, gives the causes of global warming its effects and what they imply about the future of the human society, the natural environment and the world economy. This natural phenomenon has caused and will continue to cause drastic changes in health, agriculture, water resources, storminess, forests and wild life. Indeed, global warming is a natural phenomenon, however human activities have played a greater a bigger role escalating is negative impacts on the environment such that we can no longer discuss this issue without focusing human activities. He also goes ahead to suggest methods that can be explored in order to reduce this global warming and its negative effects. The earth’s temperature is controlled by the balance of the input of the sun’s energy onto the earth and the loss of it back to space. Certain atmospheric gases known as greenhouse gases influence this balance. The energy received from the sun is in the form of short-wave radiation. Out of this, about a third is reflected back to space. The remainder is absorbed by the land and the ocean. As the earth’s surface heats up, it emits long-wave into the atmosphere. Some of this radiation is then trapped by the greenhouse gases thus warming the atmosphere. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide which together create a greenhouse warming the earth by 35°C. Human activities have increased the amount of these gases thus causing an enhanced greenhouse effect called global warming, Mark Maslin (2007). Human activities have played a very big role in increasing the amount of greenhouse gases thus contributing a lot to the global warming. Since industrial revolution the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been rising steadily. This is due to the large number of manufacturing companies formed during this era to provide goods and services. Most of these companies had carbon fossils as the only feasible source of energy for their operations. This carbon when burned to release energy emitted a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere thus enhancing the greenhouse effect. In spite of complaints from the environmentalists, business people have persisted in using these carbon fuels, probably due to their lower cost. The effects of global warming have been felt all over the world since this problem was first mentioned. There has been climate in change in most parts of the world. Areas that used to receive moderate rainfall are now experiencing floods as the amount of rainfall being received in such areas is too much. The northern America is experiencing many and more frequent storms than before. The northern parts of Europe are experiencing heat waves which have claimed thousands of lives. The polar ice is melting whose effect is a raise in the sea level which means that those people who live in low land areas are in the danger of losing their homes. Moreover, marginal areas like those that border arid areas are slowly being transformed into deserts, a process called desertification. The suggestions raised to deal with global warming are all aimed at convincing or rather encouraging business people to use less carbon fuels so as to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted. Business people should be encouraged to use alternative sources of energy which do not emit as much carbon dioxide as the carbon fuels. Some of the alternative energy sources include the bio fuels that are indeed environmentally friendly. These fuels release a very insignificant volume of greenhouse gases and therefore if adopted by business people, our environment will be saved to a great extent. Alternatively, business people could be encouraged to efficiently use energy so that even though they could be using carbon fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide being released is not alarming. 4.2 Reports from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change May 31, 2007. This is a report that sought to describe the progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change, observed climate change, climate processes and attribution, and estimates of projected future climate change. According to this report, global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years. The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are primarily due to fossil fuel use and land-use change. However, methane and nitrous oxide levels have increased primarily due to agriculture. In this report it is stated clearly that carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas. The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm3 to 379 ppm3 in 2005. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in 2005 exceeds by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years (180 to 300 ppm3) as determined from ice cores. The annual carbon dioxide growth rate was larger during the last 10 years than it has been since the beginning of continuous direct atmospheric measurements. The primary source of the increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial period results from fossil fuel use. Land use change has also been a significant cause but its contribution is quite small. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is defined as any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. The Framework Convention on Climate Change however has a different perspective of climate change. It looks at climate change as a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is observed over comparable time periods (Trevor, 2009). Human activities are therefore very critical factors associated with climate change and in order to deal with this issue, these activities must be assessed and recommendations made on the way they can be conducted in an environmentally friendly manner. Climate change has had devastating effects on the earth in a number of ways. The average temperature of the global ocean has increased to depths of at least 3000 m and the ocean has been absorbing more than 80% of the heat added to the climate system. This warming has caused seawater to expand, contributing to a rise the sea level. This rise in the sea level has endangered people who live in low land areas given that their homes can be submerged. Snow cover and mountain glaciers have been declining thus escalating the rise in the sea levels. More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. This has been caused by higher temperatures and decreased precipitation, (Betsy Herbert, 31 May 2007) The frequency of heavy precipitation events has also increased over most land areas, consistent with warming and observed increases of atmospheric water vapor. Other effects include widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over the last 50 years. Cold days, cold nights and frost have become less frequent, while hot days, hot nights, and heat waves have become more frequent. There has also been an increase in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic since about 1970, correlated with increases of tropical sea surface temperatures. Tropical cyclone activity has also increased in other regions though not as much as is the case in the North Atlantic. 4.3 Climate Change: Observed Impacts on Planet Earth In this book, Trevor M. Letcher (2009) explores the causes of global warming and climate change and all the evidence that exists to show that such changes are indeed taking place. This book further shows that human activities are chief contributors to global warming and therefore there is the need to control such activities. Life was created on earth in an environment with more or less fixed physical properties like the level of radiation from the sun, the degree of shielding of this radiation by atmospheric gases, the level of the Earth’s internal heat and properties of the atmosphere like pressure, temperature and composition of air. The Earth and its atmosphere form a very fragile system which is in equilibrium with the life forms it supports. The rapid rise of the world human population in addition to the need for more energy, more protein rich foods and more wealth has encouraged activities which are becoming a threat to this equilibrium. These activities have threatened this equilibrium by altering the composition of the atmosphere. The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been increasing steadily causing a corresponding steady increase in the temperatures of the earth surface and its atmosphere. This has brought about significant changes in the climate most of which are very harmful to these life forms. Life on Earth would not be endangered as it is had this equilibrium not been tampered with. Given that human activities are coming out as the main causes of global warming and climate change, it is very important that something is done to change the direction these human activities are taking. It is true that some people have made some efforts in reducing the level of these greenhouses but the achievement made so far is quite below the target and in fact the composition of these gases in the atmosphere is still too high. In this book, Trevor M. Letcher (2009) suggests that to reduce the level of greenhouse gases, people should reduce the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of greenhouse gases. In an attempt to discourage the burning fossil fuel the Australian federal government has introduced carbon tax. 5.0 Communication objectives According to (C. Paul Brearley 1975), the primary objective any good communication is to achieve understanding. To achieve this objective, there has to be mutual trust between the centre and the recipient of the message. One of the objectives of this communication is to create awareness of carbon tax among manufacturers, how it is levied, how much it will cost them and the benefits that will accrue to them as a result of their payment of this tax. This is important because there has been a lot of misinformation concerning this tax and in fact there are some manufacturers who have no ideas of what this tax is all about. Creating awareness of this tax to them will therefore be very important. This communication is intended to change consumers’ attitude towards carbon tax. Quite a number of consumers have been made to believe that this has been introduced by the government to simply take away money from consumers without any benefit accruing to them. As a result of this misinformation, many consumers are raising so many complaints against this tax (Maslin, 2007). The objective of this communication is therefore to convince consumers and make them understand how effective implementation of this tax will be of benefit to the society as a whole. Consumers will be made to understand that this tax will cause business people to use less fossil fuel and therefore preserve our nature for a better future. Another important objective of this communication is to create and sustain a positive image of this tax in the eyes of the public. The pubic includes consumers, producers those in the service in industry and all people who are affected in one way or another by the introduction of this tax. People have always viewed any tax a method used by the government to exploit its citizens and enrich those holding public offices. It is for this reason that the carbon tax so introduced has received such a negative response. To the public, this tax is just but a way of getting money out of their pockets. This communication therefore seeks to enlighten the public about this tax and in the end create a positive image of this tax to the people. 6.0 Creative strategies In developing a communication strategy the communicator is more concerned with how consumers receive and respond to messages than with just delivering messages to them, (Antony Young 2010). Manufacturers will be taken through the process of computing the cost of carbon fuels, how cheap they appear to be in the short run together with their long term devastating effects both to the manufacturers themselves and the public as a whole. They will be made to understand that even though the cost of these fuels is less compared to alternative environment friendly sources, their long term impact is too much to be quantifiable. Considering their long term impacts will make them consider reducing these emissions through supporting the implementation of the tax policy. Consumers will be strategically approached from their welfare point of view. They will be told illustratively the impact that these carbon emissions will have to their lives, their livelihoods and their future. Once this information has been clearly communicated to them, they will see the excessive use of fossil fuels as an enemy to them (Young, 2010). They will be motivated to demand that products sold to them are only those whose production does no lead to the destruction of the environment in any way. This means that they will be among the first group of people gladly welcome the implementation of the carbon tax as it will help reduce these emissions. The public in general will be educated on global warming, climate change and the effects it has on the environment. They will also be given concrete examples of the impact that this global warming is having on the environment bearing in mind that some of these effects are being felt right at their door steps (Maslin, 2007). They will then be informed that all these negative effects can be reduced to a great extent only if the use of fossil fuels is controlled. They will gladly welcome the carbon tax implantation process once they are informed that it is one of the most effective means being used by the federal government to reduce the use these harmful fossil fuels. Another strategy that can be used to effectively communicate this message to the public is by organizing sporting events with the theme being environmental preservation. During these events, people are enlightened about the importance of environmental conservation both to the current and future population. They are then informed of the causes of environmental degradation effects and how to minimize them. At this point, carbon tax as an effective mechanism of reducing the excessive use of fossil fuels is introduced. This strategy will make sure that as many people as possible have been reached and the message conveyed in an entertaining and interesting manner. 7.0 A media plan Manufacturer will be reached through holding conferences that bring together all manufacturers in the country. People who are effective public speakers are then given the responsibility of talking to these manufacturers about this tax to be introduced, the cost associated with its levying and the benefits that will be derived from its implementation. Effective communication must be made to all manufacturers about the venue and timing of the event so that no one misses. Apart from the conference, manufacturers can also be reached through the use other media like radio, television and billboards. Consumers will be reached through the use of radio television and newspapers since they can easily access these two communication mechanism. These channels are chosen because they reach a wide audience within a very short period of time. The radio and television messages should be aired during popular programs because this is the time when many people would be listening to radios or watching television. These messages must be designed in such a way that they will attract and retain the audience’ attention until all the information has been communicated. Another very important factor is that the messages should be repeated as many times as possible to ensure that everybody has had the opportunity of listening to it. In addition to the above, social media channels like face book, blogs can also be used to effectively communicate this message to the public. This is possible because social media allows for a two-way conversation with the entire market, Entrepreneur Press, Mitch Meyerson (2010). These channels will be more effective because they allow for interaction between various parties. A forum can therefore be created where global warming, climate change, their causes and effects are discussed and possible solutions to this established. Carbon tax can then be introduced in this forum as the most appropriate method of reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming and climate change. Word of mouth can also be used as a channel to convey this important information. This can be stimulated by the introduction of a public debate in the importance of carbon tax to the economy as well as the environment. People should then be encouraged to take part in this debate at the end of which a knowledgeable will be given the opportunity to educate the public on this matter. Public debate is very effective because it gives members of the public the opportunity to enlighten one another on carbon tax and it affects the economy, the society and the environment. Each person will have his or her own insight into the matter and when all has been tabled, the level of understanding and hence acceptance of this tax will be high. 8.0 Conclusion. In conclusion, it is in the interest of the public that carbon tax was introduced. This is because global warming was indeed causing serious environmental and climatic changes whose effects can only be explained by the number of people who have lost their homes due to floods and those who have lost their lives from heat waves among other effects. Given that this tax will reduce the consumption of carbon, the level of greenhouse gases will go down and so will global climate change and its negative effects (Young, 2010). Hence, ensuring that people take this tax positively and accept its full implementation is of critical importance. The parties that are to be approached and influenced include manufacturers, consumers and business people in the service industry. The target audience heighted above will be effectively reached through the media channels discussed above. The strategies discussed are also instrumental in ensuring that the target audience is reached and that the communication objectives are achieved accordingly. Since the target audience has been identified and communication strategies designed for each of these audiences, there is no doubt that the objectives as specified will be attained. The message will be delivered to audience and feedback obtained and evaluated because among the many channels being used, we have blogs face book and public debates that allow for immediate feedback between the sender and the receiver of the message (Trevor, 2009). References Antony Young, 2010, Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era. New York. Palgrave Macmillan. Betsy H., 2007. Climate Change, 2007, The Physical Science Basis. Report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Issue no. 4, page 3-10 Cch, 2009. Australian Master Environment Guide, Macpherson’s Printing Group. Australia. C. Paul Brearley, 1975. Social Work, Ageing and Society. London. Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.   Entrepreneur Press, Mitch Meyerson, 2010, Success Secrets of Social Media Marketing Superstars. Canada. Entrepreneur Media Inc. Mark Maslin, 2007, Global Warming: Causes, Effects, and the Future. St. Paul MN. MBI Publishing Company. Trevor M. Letcher, 2009, Climate Change: Observed Impacts on Planet Earth. Amsterdam. Elsevier B.V. Read More