Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Business communication of drivers and barriers for climate change engagement by Top New Zealand, Australian and Global Fortune 500 Corporations(Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), 18/06/2019) Thaker JA small number of corporations are responsible for two-thirds of historical global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While many studies have evaluated business communication about climate change, they have several limitations, including an understudy of businesses outside the U.S. and Europe, and a lack of cross-country benchmarking. This study compares 30 of the largest New Zealand companies with top Australian and Fortune Global 500 businesses on communication of drivers and barriers related to climate change engagement. A quantitative analysis of 90 corporations’ latest reports finds that the most frequently reported drivers are external and internal stakeholders, regulatory concerns, and commitment to a low carbon economy. Few organisations report barriers such as economic growth, process and technology factors, and regulatory uncertainty. New Zealand companies lag behind Australian corporations who communicate equally as well as the top Global 500 on different dimensions of drivers and barriers for engagement. Factors driving business engagement with climate change and its implications on business communication, are highlighted.Item So Close and Yet So Far Apart: Contrasting Climate Change Perceptions in Two "Neighboring" Coastal Communities on Aotearoa New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula(18/09/2017) Schneider P; Glavovic B; Farrelly TACoastal hazard risk, compounded by climate change, is escalating. Efforts to address this challenge are fraught and ‘success’ is elusive. We focus on this impasse and recommend ways to improve understanding, reduce risk and enable adaptation. Two Aotearoa New Zealand coastal communities, Mercury Bay and Kennedy Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula, serve as case studies. Ethnographic fieldwork underpins this analysis. Despite close proximity, local perceptions are ‘worlds apart’. Poor understanding of climate change, and preoccupation with everyday issues, is commonplace. Moreover, there are countervailing community narratives. In Kennedy Bay, which is undeveloped and Māori, climate change is not a manifest concern. Local narratives are rooted in Māori culture and under the shadow of colonization, which shapes contemporary perceptions, practices and prospects. In Mercury Bay, a rapidly developing resort town, seashore property owners demand protection works—ignoring sea-level rise and privileging short-term private interests. Despite laudable regulatory provisions, static responses to dynamic risks prevail and proactive adaptation is absent. Recommendations are made to improve understanding about local cultural-social-ecological characteristics, climate change and adaption. Enabling leadership and capability-building are needed to institutionalize proactive adaptation. Strengthening Māori self-determination (rangatiratanga) and guardianship (kaitiakitanga), and local democracy, are key to mobilizing and sustaining community-based adaptation governance.

