Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Climate change mitigation

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Using market research methodologies to advance public engagement with emerging climate technologies : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy via publication in Marketing at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Carlisle, Daniel
    The world is facing an unprecedented climate emergency that threatens humanity and global ecosystems. To help avoid some of the worst impacts, scientists are developing innovative technologies for addressing rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. However, in the early stages of research and development, the effectiveness, consequences, and desirability of implementing these technologies remains highly uncertain. Early public engagement is therefore critical for ensuring research and development pathways are acceptable to society. Currently, it remains unclear how best to engage the public on a global scale; an issue addressed in this thesis by drawing on theories and methodologies applied in the marketing discipline to advance the field of public engagement. The core methodology draws on marketing theories and measurement metrics by drawing on associative network theories of memory (ANTM) to model cognitive associations (i.e., public perceptions) with unfamiliar concepts. Study One is a replication and extension of work by (Wright, Teagle, & Feetham, 2014) and uses qualitative and quantitative methods to measure public perceptions of six climate engineering technologies across countries and over time. The results show strong perceptual differences between technologies, but remarkable consistency between countries and over time. This consistency validates the cognitive association method as a robust tool for rapid public engagement and tracking perceptions as they evolve. Study Two builds on Study One by drawing on additional dual processing theories and using an experimental design to test how citizens form opinions about emerging climate technologies. Contrary to concerns that survey methods elicit insufficiently considered responses, the study finds that citizens rely on rapid, snap judgements to form opinions, and that encouraging more thorough consideration does not affect their responses. Thus, the research further validates the use of survey methodologies for public engagement. Study Three shifts focus, measuring perceptions of alternative fuels for decarbonising the shipping industry – a previously unresearched topic. The study is also the first to use a mixed-method approach to modelling cognitive associations in academic literature. Again, the quantitative findings showed strong, previously-unknown differences in perceptions between alternative fuels. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis supplemented these findings with rich insights into the drivers behind differing public perceptions. This thesis makes several notable contributions: Practically, the results demonstrate the public’s consistent preference for Carbon Dioxide Removal over Solar Radiation Management, their cautious support for carbon capture technologies, a strong distaste for stratospheric aerosol injection and ammonia as a shipping fuel, a striking preference for nuclear propulsion over heavy fuel oil, support for hydrogen and biofuel powered shipping, support for local implementation of alternative shipping fuels, and conditional support for small-scale research into acceptable emerging technologies. Theoretically, the research advances ANTM and dual processing theories in the context of emerging technologies, yielding results that are broadly applicable to not only public engagement with science, but also market research, brand tracking, and consumer judgement. Methodologically, the research validates cognitive association methods for cross-country public engagement, demonstrates the ability to track perceptions over time, and demonstrates a mixed-method approach to modelling cognitive associations. Finally, the research demonstrates the importance of conducting early and ongoing public engagement to identify acceptable decarbonisation pathways, guide research trajectories, and inform climate policy.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    At loggerheads : an examination of afforestation as a climate change prevention tool and environmental policy : a 60-credit Journalism project presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Journalism at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Schwanecke, Gianina
    This project examines the impacts of afforestation as a policy tool for mitigating climate change. Additionally, it examines the New Zealand media coverage of the One Billion Trees programme, and how this is influenced by access to sources and the use of framing. It will explore the programme’s tensions between farming and forestry, and native versus exotic tree planting and its implications as a policy to address climate change.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Using marketing concepts to facilitate upstream public engagement with science : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Feetham, Pamela May
    This thesis investigates whether marketing theories and methodologies can be used to facilitate upstream public engagement with contentious scientific issues. Upstream engagement requires the early involvement of citizens in decisions about new science or technology from the conceptualisation stage onwards; before ingrained attitudes, social representations or frames in the media bias responses. Contemporary approaches to science communication lack consensus on the most appropriate approach to engage the public with new science and technology. The research addresses upstream communication in the context of climate engineering. Scientists and the International Panel for Climate Change are considering climate engineering as a potential solution to global warming, given that the present methods of mitigation and adaptation have so far failed to sufficiently reduce global temperatures to a level of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The communication of potential solutions to global warming is a vital part of a critical global issue that will impact the planet’s eco-systems, biodiversity and future generations. Marketing may be able to provide methodologies and techniques for evaluating and measuring public perceptions of climate engineering. As well as contributing to upstream science communication and public engagement, the research contributes to marketing theory in two ways. First, it extends the application of brand image research founded on the Associative Network Theory of Memory (ANTM) to science concepts, demonstrating the robustness of the theory. Second, it extends the information dual-processing theory to investigate the effects of intuitive and deliberative thinking on concept evaluations, and whether these views change with greater deliberation. In the qualitative phase, thirty exploratory semi-structured depth interviews, using two methods of attribute elicitation, provided 12 common attributes associated with climate engineering. The findings identified an overall negative public reaction to the four climate engineering technologies tested. The independent qualitative findings also revealed a strikingly clear result – Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies are perceived more positively than Solar Radiation Management technologies. The subsequent quantitative on-line surveys tested public perceptions of six climate engineering techniques in Australia (n =1,006) and New Zealand (n =1,022). The results of the on-line surveys supported the qualitative findings that associations with climate engineering techniques are predominately negative, and allowed further diagnostic insights into the sources of these evaluations for each of the individual techniques tested. The analysis established the data are robust and stable across the two countries and the methodologies are validated by the strikingly similar aggregate findings across the qualitative and quantitative stages. For the comparison of intuitive and deliberative thinking on memory associations with climate engineering the effects are measured by comparing within sample groups split by the length of time taken to complete the online survey. In Australia, the findings show that greater deliberative thinking is associated with more negative evaluations, indicating that intuitive and deliberative thinking do give different results in magnitude, if not in direction for these data. In New Zealand, greater deliberative thinking is not associated with more negative evaluations suggesting that the effect of deliberative thinking on the evaluation of climate engineering concepts is moderated by the country of study, or by the prior beliefs of the country’s population. A final stage of research used five focus groups in New Zealand to investigate whether deliberative arguments and interactions help participants make sense of unfamiliar, multifaceted or contentious issues, and whether different perspectives are influenced by age, gender or the ethnicity of participants. Overall, most participants were sceptical of climate engineering, although some between-group differences were apparent. Knowledge of climate engineering varied between groups, with younger participants unaware of climate engineering, and reluctant to consider research on the technologies. Conversely, in the retiree group all but one participant had heard of climate engineering and the most of the participants were receptive to the idea of proceeding with research on climate engineering technologies. This further demonstrates that the effects of deliberation may be context specific. The results confirm the practicality of extending concept testing and measurement of memory associations to upstream engagement for controversial scientific methods, showing convergent validity across countries and methods. The results demonstrate that mixed mode research using marketing techniques yields a range of insights that are not otherwise available in upstream public engagement. Finally, the research finds that more deliberative responses may affect the magnitude of concept evaluations, but the effect is contextual. This highlights the need for further research to provide better understanding of the effect of deliberation on evaluations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Breakdown of governance : a critical analysis of New Zealand's climate change response : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Rimmer, Daniel
    This thesis critically analyses the organisation and practice of climate change governance in New Zealand. Grounded in neo-Marxist state theory, the research identifies and deconstructs the political and economic structures that have shaped New Zealand’s policy response to climate change from 1988 to 2012. The fourth Labour Government, acting in response to the emergent threat of anthropogenic climate change, initiated New Zealand’s Climate Change Programme (NZ CCP). Subsequent governments persevered with the NZ CCP; effecting a relatively continuous pattern of minimal interventionist and least cost policy change. This culminated in late 2008, with the passage of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) – a comprehensive, all sector economic instrument that would impose a price on domestic greenhouse gases. Despite this policy change, the NZ CCP has failed as an ameliorative response to climate change. Between 1990 and 2012, New Zealand’s gross emissions increased by 21 percent. Furthermore, there has been little evidence to suggest that the response has encouraged either afforestation or greater investment in renewable energy. To this point, little progress has been made in decarbonising New Zealand’s economy. Using Marxian systems-analysis, the research treats this pattern of policy change as a case study of policy breakdown and dysfunctional governance. The predominant (and ineffectual) mode of governance practiced in New Zealand is argued an outcome of the contradictory structural dynamics of New Zealand’s capitalist state. In the first instance, the state is functionally obliged to develop remedial climate change policy in response to the existential threat of climate change. This involves the formulation of policy that directly intervenes in New Zealand’s productive sources of greenhouse gas emissions. However, in the second instance, the state is constrained in its policy-making activities by the systemic logic of capital. This precludes the formulation of authoritative interventionist policy capable of effecting behavioural changes in carbon-intensive actors. Moreover, the capitalist biases of New Zealand’s climate change response precipitate legitimation crises, further undermining the state’s ability to drive mitigation and adaptation efforts. Policy change wrought between discordant systemic imperatives is invariably subject to policy breakdown. As this dysfunction is structural in nature, the thesis argues that modern capitalist states cannot practice a meaningful politics of climate change.