#COP15 from Copenhagen

For my final project in Digital Campaigns, I have chosen to develop a social media strategy for COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark in November/December 2009. For another assignment, I stumbled upon Cop15.dk/eng, the temporary Website for COP15. It is built on the Web 1.0 design that the Danish Foreign Service has used for 5-6 years. And to their defense, the new Website, they are developing, will hopefully include more Web 2.0 platforms than just the current RSS-feed.

 

The following is an excerpt but somewhat re-written version of my paper:

 

World leaders will assemble in Copenhagen and attempt to write the succeeding agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. It is a unique opportunity for Denmark to brand its progressive climate agenda and regain its reputation after the Cartoon Crisis in 2006.

 

However, it is a challenge to build an efficient organization and communications platform handling delegates from the 192 partnering countries, thousands of media outlets, NGOs, and other interested actors. It will be chaotic.  But a social media strategy will provide the tools and the directions to succeed in this chaos.

 

Exploring Social Media in Political Processes

Employing Web 2.0 platforms will represent a courageous and experimental strategy. Governments around the world have not yet embraced social media as businesses and NGOs have. It is also the case in Denmark, but a social media strategy should fit well in with the management skills of the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and with Denmark’s tradition of being a progressive and pioneering country. Furthermore, UN in general has wide experience in using social media in the political process, which Denmark could build on (Garrett Graff, lecture, Summer 2008).

 

However, the question is how do ordinary citizens (or green influentials) get access to relevant information about COP15 and engage in the negotiations?

 

The Internet can be a “platform for informed, interactive politics, stimulating political participation and opening up possible avenues for enlarging decision making beyond the closed doors of political institutions” (Sey & Castells, 2008, p.225). On the other hand, the Internet, especially open source projects, is user-generated, and the actual influence or participation is by no means obvious.

 

Taken to an extreme, this would be direct democracy – eroding the current representative democracy in the Western world as many politicians probably fear. Dean’s campaign in 2003 and 2004 tapped into the Perfect Storm[1] and is the perfect example of an “extreme” social media strategy. Politicians have also been cautious about opening up the political process because it is time consuming, and it requires giving up some control. 

 

The challenge for COP15 and for political processes in general is “to find a model of Internet politics that captures the strength of the medium, while retaining control and organizational precision in the hand of politicians (Sey & Castells, 2008, p. 228). Furthermore, social media should be used to mobilize the allies of climate change to put pressure on world leaders in the participating countries.

 

It does pose a risk for Denmark to experiment with a new framework for political decision-making, but hosting COP15 is in itself a risk. And anyway the green influentials in the Web 2.0 landscape will be listening, talking, and connecting about climate change and COP15 anyway.

 

All in all, the goal is to build a Web 2.0 platform providing a framework for climate diplomacy and providing the target audience (green influentials) information about and access to the COP15 negotiations, thereby sustaining accountable and transparent negotiations.

 

The social media strategy could include:

 

1. Social Media Site: Cop15.dk integrating all the Web 2.0 platforms like 1Sky or BarackObama.com

 2. COP15 Conversation Platform facilitates conversation and participation like GOPPlatform2008.com does

 

3. Cop15Blog with sevaral voices like Tree Hugger, GristMill, and Daily Kos.

 

 4. The LinkedIn Group COP15 to sustain a professional network

 

 5. Flickr: I was there

 

 6. The COP15 Channel on YouTube featuring round ups and raw material.

 

 7. #COP15 – twittering during the conference like from Netroots Nation

 

Climate Change is a Hot Political Issue in Denmark

I gave a briefing of the Danish experiences to some of the faculty members at PR and Corporate Communications at Georgetown University yesterday. It was a part of their preparation for a roundtable meeting next week with Danish communications VPs on climate change and communications. Here is an extract of my notes:

 

Denmark is an Environmental Conscious Country

Since the oil crisis in the 1970s, Denmark has implemented a strict environmental policy which among other things has focused on renewable energy. In 2004, renewable energy accounted for 28% of the production of electricity. Denmark has also proven that a country can maintain economic growth and reduce dependency on fossil fuels at the same time.

 

Other notable initiatives and results are:

•          Tax on energy consumption and waste plus water discharge

•          66% of all waste is recycled

•          Reduced water consumption with 30% in the last 10 years

•          Bathing water is clean

•          Cars run on unleaded petrol

•          6% of the farm land is organically cultivated

Source: www.visitdenmark.dk

 

Professionally, I have never been engaged in this debate and I am sure this the facts that we are proud of, but as with everything else we could probably do more to secure energy independence and reduce CO2 emissions.

 

Political Denmark on Climate Change

During the last couple of years, the Liberal-Conservative Government, led by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has engaged in the climate change debate. In February, the Prime Minister held a speech at the University of Copenhagen as part of the Copenhagen Climate Lectures. A bit to my surprise, he has fully adopted the views that are presented by the IPCC (UN Panel on Climate). This is further demonstrated by the creation of the Ministry of Climate and Energy  (no English version) in November 2007.

 

Denmark is hosting COP15 in November/December 2009. The goal is to establish an ambitious climate agreement for the period from 2012. As part of the preparation for COP15 the Prime Minister is hosting roundtable discussions with key actors in the debate on climate change. For the first meeting, earlier this month, Harvard University made a memo debating the economic tools in a new global climate agreement on reducing CO2 emissions.

 

The Danish government has published Plan of Action for CSR  (PDF) earlier this month. This is not a law, but the government is asking the Danish companies to work more efficiently with CSR. The Plan of Action includes that 1,000 of the biggest companies have to report every year on their work on SCR. The plan focuses on 4 areas and one of them is climate change. The goal is that corporate companies take responsibility in handling the global climate challenges by reducing the consumption of energy and CO2 emission and by developing global solutions to these problems.

 

Media Denmark on Climate Change

Another indicator of the rising interest in climate change is that the media has invested in this subject. Denmark has got its first climate reporters.

 

• Børsen (the Danish equivalent to Wall Street Journal) publishes every Wednesday a section called Climate, Environment, and Energy.
• Jyllands-Posten has established a website focusing on climate. Several years ago, the paper created an initiative called JP Explorer where the paper’s reporters are reporting from all over the world. This summer the expedition is visiting the Artic.
• Berlingske Tidende has also created a website where the Minister of Climate and Energy is blogging and politicians and experts are wikiing.

 

 

Corporate Denmark and Climate Change

I have noticed that climate change is also a hot issue in the communications business. The PR and Communications Association in Denmark has hosted a lot of meetings on climate and communications. But it was actually a bit hard to find more information about the Danish experiences on CSR, climate change and corporate communications.

 

As far as I could see in the yearly reports on CSR from Danske Bank, Dong Energy, and LEGO they developed Climate Change Strategies in 2007. But how do they use this in their communications platform?

 

Today, a friend of mine emailed me an article saying that companies like the Swedish IKEA has build a green platform years ago but they are not talking about it. It is the Scandinavian way of not telling consumers and the general public about your efforts. It is so obvious why you are doing it. So instead of green washing we are talking about green hushing. Is that what is going on?