Media and Politics: Climate Change

Therese H. Karlseng, Managing Director Inland Norway Energy Agency

My background •  Political Science, Fridtjof Nansens

Institute •  Point Carbon

–  International Carbon Markets •  Ministry of Petroleum and Energy

–  National Climate Change Policy, EU-policy, International Negotiations

•  Hedmark County Consil –  Energy, Mitigating Climate Change,

Climate Change Adoptation •  Norwegian Parliament

–  Energy/Environment, Transport and Communication (Media)

•  Inland Norway Energy Agency

INEA spread management practices, provides guidance, and offer a range of services based on specific local needs. We serve municipalities, public and private businesses and households. INEA is a non-profit and independent company.

Regional knowledge centre for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The first of its kind in Norway. We support the transition to more sustainable energy systems ie. mitigating climate change.

About INEA

Road Map

•  An Inconvenient Truth and Framing of Climate Change

•  Framing Climate Change and the Norwegian Parliamentary Election

•  The new IPCC-report –  Process –  Key Findings –  Media Coverage and Responses – deniers

•  Questions

An Inconventient Truth

•  Nisbet: Frames are interpretive storylines that set a specific train of thought in motion, communicating why an issue might be a problem, who or what might be responsible for it, and what should be done about it

•  Which frames do Al Gore use in this film?

Frames Used

Monster Al Gore mentions: Hurricanes, downpours, floddings, droughts, soil evaporation, ice-melting affecting polar bears and the golf stream (if it stops we could enter a new ice-age in 10 years time..), sea level rise affecting millions of people, illness, vectors, 100 of millions of refugess

Public Accountability Al Gore: ”Scientist are obliged to represent the truth as they see it.” ”We already know all we need to know. We have everything we need – say political will” President Obama similarly invoked the public accountability frame and Gore’s film while announcing his science policy advisers:

”Because the truth is that promoting science isn’ t just about providing resources—it’ s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’ s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’ s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient— especially when it’ s inconvenient”

Moral and Ethics

Gore: ”How should I spend my time on this earth” ”It is a moral issue – to rise again to secure our future”

What About Scientific Uncertainty of Human Induced Climate Change?

•  Gore: It is a misconseption created by a few with the objective to reposition global warming as theory rather than a fact.

•  Scientist agree on the human induced climate change.

•  However in the US (at that time) more than 50 % of the articles on climate change mentiones uncertainty

Media and Climate Change

•  Political reporters apply a conflict and strategy frame to the policy debate

•  News criteria: identification, importance,

sensation, conflict, actuality (Kvisa) –  Journalists in Norway and other countries use these

criteria to write stories that sell –  Or you use these to get your news story on

•  The conflict and strategy frame on climate change creates a false balance; by giving equal weight to contrarian views on climate science, journalists has presented the false impression that there is limited expert agreement on the causes of climate change

•  And many reporters do not challenge climate

sceptics arguments

•  Generally: It is getting better - less false balance. In Norway – national media is better than local media

•  INEA: Should we participate in the debate on

human indued climate change or use other frames ie. an economic frame showing the possibilities of savings, green jobs etc.

Climate Change in the Norwegian Parliamentary Election

Strategy •  Climate change is one of the (or the) greatest

challenges of our time •  But can you win an election on this topic?

•  Al Gore: ”If an issue is not on top of the

constituencys tongue, it is easy to ignore. We deal with that tomorrow”

•  Nisbet: Although the Obama administration is committed to addressing climate change, the necessary level of public engagement with the issue still appears to be missing.

- So what is the situation like i Norway?

2011: Spring floddings and rain summer and autumn

2011: Insurance companies register 37 113 damages due to water in buildings. Compensation payments NOK 2,2 billion

2013: Spring rain and floddings

Foto: Mosvold Larsen/NTB scanpix

Nationen 31. mai: Over en million dekar matjord rammet av flommen

Nettavisen 22. mai: Tog står, veier er stengt og kjellere er oversvømt

Trafikken på E6 ved Espa er hindret av flom og vannmasser

Kvam sentrum ødelagt – her fra oversvømt jorde og undergravd jernbanelinje i Kvam

Vallset: Hus og biler under vann etter flom i lokal bekk

Source: MDG-net

Norwegian Parliamentary Election and Climate Change – which Frames were used?

Moral and Ethics…

Other Frames?

The new IPCC report – last Friday

– Process – Key findings – Media focus - responses and climate

change deniers Questions?

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) •  UN's scientific climate panel.

•  IPCC does not undertake research of its own but focuses on review and structuring of existing research to assess the state of research.

•  Provide world's countries with best possible scientific basis on climate change and effects for humans, natural environment and society

•  More than 800 experts from 85 countries working on the IPCC reports to be published in 2013-14 (Fifth Assessment Report, AR 5).

•  AR5 contributions from three working groups. WG1 - physical science basis of climate change, WG2 - impacts, adapation and vulnerability, and WG3 - mitigation of climate change. Syntesis Report (oct 2014) draws on assessments made by WGs

IPCCs 5th report says

•  with 95% certainty, humans are the dominant cause of global warming since the 1950s

•  the period from 1983-2012 in the Northern Hemisphere was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years. Each of the last three decades has got successively warmer, and these decades have all been warmer than any of the preceding decades since 1850.  In  the  last  IPCC  report  2007  that  came  a4er  Gores  film  –  scien9st  were  90  %,  very  likely  –  now  95  %  

•  90  %  certainty  hea9ng  of  the  oceans,  90%  emissions  affects  mel9ng  of  the  Arc9c  sea-­‐ice,  90  %  emissions  leads  to  increase  og  frequency  and  strength  of  heath  waves.  

•  Medium  cert  –  extreme  downpurs…northern  hemisphere    

•  Rapporten  forteller  med  all  tydelighet  at  det  er  vår  feil  at  klimaet  på  kloden  endres:  

•  Rapporten  slår  blant  annet  fast  at  det  er  95  prosent  sannsynlig  -­‐  «ekstremt  sannsynlig»  -­‐  at  minst  halvparten  av  den  observerte  temperaturøkningen  skyldes  våre  klimagassutslipp.  

•  Det  er  «meget  sannsynlig»  (90  prosent)  at  utslippene  fører  9l  en  betydelig  oppvarmning  av  de  øverste  havlagene.  

•  Det  er  «meget  sannsynlig»  at  utslippene  påvirker  smeldingen  av  sjøisen  i  Ark9s.  

•  Det  er  «meget  sannsynlig»  at  utslippene  fører  9l  at  hetebølger  øker  i  frekvens  og  styrke.  

•  Panelet  er  «middels  sikre»  på  at  utslippene  har  bidraY  9l  intensiveringen  av  ekstremnedbør  på  den  nordlige  halvkule,  men  panelet  er  usikre  på  hvor  mye  menneskene  har  påvirket  den  observerte  smel9ngen  av  breene  på  Grønland  og  i  Antark9s.  

International reactions UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the study was a call for governments, many of which have been focused on spurring weak growth rather than fighting climate change, to work to agree on a planned UN accord in 2015 to combat global warming. “The heat is on. Now we must act,” he said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the report “yet another wake-up call.”“Those who deny the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire,” he said in a statement, referring to skeptics who question the need for urgent action. European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said it was time to treat the Earth’s health. “If your doctor was 95 per cent sure you had a serious disease, you would immediately start looking for the cure,” she said.

Skeptics’ reaction: “No one should trust the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued today,” said Bob Carter of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition. “The IPCC has a history of malfeasance that even includes rewording recommendations of expert science advisers to fit the alarmist agenda of participating governments.”