A Winning (and losing) Strategy For Presenting Sustainability
Written by Francisco Céspedes, Amata Green Legal Intern
During the last few weeks, Spaniards have been able to see how the price of electricity has been dramatically increasing. There are several factors that explain this rise, but from some mainstream media one of the many quotes we have heard to calm down the mood of consumers, has been to assert that this is the price to pay to prevent climate change.
On August 20th, one of these media outlets published an article whose headline read: "Developed Countries Must Stop Growing Economically To Fight Climate Change." These statements are not new, in fact, anyone who follows the Spanish news will have seen how these messages are becoming more frequent.
Reading this headline reminded me of an event during my internship at Amata Green, a company focused on sustainability in agriculture and biochar production. During this internship I had the opportunity to talk to several farmers and exchange some ideas about climate change. Ideas that, being native to Almeria, were not new to me since many of my friends are part of the sustainability sector.
Summing up, the farmers said that logically they were concerned about climate change, given that it will have an impact on the sector, on their crops, on their future and their children’s future, but that at the same time they were cautious of projects that had been previously presented to them under the label of “climate change.” And, above all, they showed that their first concern before climate change was the economic viability of their farms and providing for their families. Somehow, the first impression they held when talking about projects based on climate change was that this meant an added cost to production, and maybe even problems or reduced profits.
The reason for this thinking is quite simple. In recent years, under the pretext of climate change, we have seen how an increasingly large industry is emerging to try to find solutions to the problem. Obviously, this is a good idea, since we must ensure that one of our goals is to enjoy a strong economy, with the least possible impact on the environment. And while we find messages that talk about using the green economy to boost economic growth, many others – like the one mentioned above-- focus on just the opposite.
In short, I find that there is a big problem in the way in which the strategies they say we must follow to mitigate the effects of climate change are being communicated. It has been widely studied by psychology, and even economic psychology, that negative emotions have a greater impact on us than positive ones. That is the reason why many speech writers resort to "fear speeches": it is easier for us to change our behaviour in the face of an alarming speech. But, we should bear in mind one important thing--ideas whose basis are to tell people that they should live worse in the future, have never and will never, win.
First, because we cannot expect ordinary people, the working class - who are also those who will suffer most from the effects of climate change - to be the ones who end up paying for most of the changes we need. And second, most of the changes we need should not be based on halting growth or living less comfortably than we do now.
The cause of climate change cannot be fixed by saying that we must stop growing, that we have to give up our comfortable way of life, that the lower classes must give up flying, or that the price of these trips must become more expensive - while private jets remain exempt from the new fuel taxes - or that those with worst cars, and therefore poorer, will have to pay more taxes, among others.
On the contrary, if we really want the cause to succeed, if we want to effectively advance in our fight against climate change, it cannot be through coercion, price increases and fear. The fight and the discourse should be focused on all the advantages that this would bring to our cities, to our children and to our lives and how it is possible to change many of our practices for much better ones that not only will allow us to live as we do now, but will bring us an even better life.
We must work to grow even more, to ensure that new projects, real projects committed to the environment, move forward and that more and more people see the opportunities and the benefits that a cleaner model would have for everyone. We need new ideas, incentives, and more development. This will bring a better model. One example lies with the biochar industry, which is very small, but capable of sinking hundreds of thousands of tons of C02 each year, yet struggles to get private or government funding.
In short, it is essential that we all listen to the discourse and visualize actions that are exciting and promising. Catastrophism from media ads and alarmist messages from speech writers are not a winning strategy. Explaining the problem and exploring how every farmer, every student and every human can take some small action in their life to help reduce the effects of climate change without breaking their budget--there’s where we will see a winning conversation.
To learn more about how Amata Green is helping farmers reduce their carbon footprint and help fight climate change, see our plans at: https://www.amatagreen.com/transitionplan
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from Almería, Spain, Francisco Céspedes has studied a double degree in Business and Law for the past six years at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. He graduated in June 2021 and for the next academic year he will pursue a master’s degree in legal practice, focusing on company law. Mr. Céspedes is particularly interested in new technologies and their legal implications, competition, and European law.
