Best Practices for a Social Network-based Carbon Tax Campaign

Author: T. Todd Elvins
7 October 2014
Copyright (c) 2014 T Todd Elvins

We’ve already analyzed the 2014 ice bucket phenomena so let’s step into the way back machine and dissect three 2013 nonprofit campaigns that went viral in social media and consider the campaign characteristics that appealed to viewers’ psychies.

In 2013, the three campaigns below generated massive awareness and often donations for the non-profits.  While the vast majority of online campaigns generate a donation trickle, these campaigns magically sparked viewers to take action and/or donate, and forward the campaign media to their friends and family.  Certainly no campaign for a carbon tax, or probably for global warming in general, has generated this amount of attention in social media.

1. Water is Life  repurposed the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems.  In a video, third world people complain about their (non-existent) first world problems.  It takes the word ‘irony’ to a whole new level. The result is simultaneously poignant and uplifting.  Six million views on youtube.
2. UNICEF polio vaccine  directly and boldly called out their social media followers. “Hey, a ‘like’  on facebook does not help us to vaccinate children.  So donate.”  For four euros, we can vaccinate 12 children, and maybe save their lives.  In several videos and images.
3. American Red Cross took part in National Preparedness Month, jumping in on the hashtag #NPM13. The Red Cross helps with disaster relief and emergencies, so it was a good match and raised awareness with thousands of people in social media.  In one funny graphic, there are twelve items, each marked as either useful, or not useful in an emergency.  Got nunchuks?

Let’s enumerate the main characteristics of the three campaigns.

	Water is Life	Unicef Polio Vaccine	Red Cross Emergency preparedness
Irony	X	X
Funny	X		X
Empathetic/ sympathetic/ poignant	X	X
Startling	X	X
Thought provoking	X	X	X
Sensible	X	X	X
Cost effective	X	X	X
Depicts human victims	X	X	X
Leverages another campaign			X

 

These three successful campaigns have many attributes in common.  Melding the commonalities, a successful carbon tax campaign should:  (1) feature victims that are people (not plants or ice caps or polar bears), (2) be funny and/or ironic, (3) be thought-provoking, and (4) be sensible and cost-effective.

1. Victims are people – Best choice is likely the next generation – today’s kids who will be parents grandparents, and voters when climate disruptions become catastrophic. The campaign pictures and/or videos should present a future with more frequent disasters, more severe weather, and offers less access to water, food, transportation, shelter, and clothing.

2. Funny and/or ironic – The victims and future in 1 above, must be presented in a humorous and/or ironic setting, scenario, or script.   The tag line might be, “a pollution tax paid to our children”.  What would a kid do with a stack of $5000 checks?  Go to college?  Buy an EV?  There was a funny tweet recently, “Experts say, ‘ebola is under control”.  “Public reaction: panic”.  “Experts say, ‘global warming will be catastrophic”, “Public reaction: ‘pass me some more coal'”.  This type of exchange expresses the right kind of humor and irony.

3. Thought provoking – The resulting image or video should include an analogy, metaphor, allegory, or paradox. 

4. Sensible and cost effective – The solution presented should be easy to grasp, be immediately logical and satisfying, and be obviously affordable. “Economists agree that a carbon fee with 100% refund is the cheapest, simplest, fastest, and by far, most effective way to reduce green house gas emissions. Tell your members of Congress”.

 

Political Mojo

16 September 2014
Author: T. Todd Elvins
copyright (c) 2014 T. Todd Elvins

The National Climate Assessment released by the White House on 06 May 2014 anticipates accelerated climate disruption in the future if global carbon emissions continue to surge unchecked.  Luckily, there is an unassuming champion poised to unleash their political mojo at a scale that could finally start to level off and decrease emissions.  That champion is the global insurance industry, whose solvency is jeopardized by extreme weather events.  State insurance regulators, insurance trade organizations, and insurers themselves are pooling their mojo to lobby for climate legislation that would preserve the industry’s global position as 2nd largest, with US$4.5 trillion in annual revenue and US$25 trillion in total global investments.

Insurers

Through a series of international meetings starting in 1992, insurers came to realize that extreme weather events could trigger more insurance claims than insurers have the capacity to pay, and in the long term global climate disruption could bankrupt the entire industry.  In 2008, insurance industry analysts rated climate change their number one strategic threat.

This threat stems partially from the insurers’ massive investments in publicly-traded stocks and other assets, some of which will decrease in value as extreme weather worsens.  Falling stock values will drag down the value of insurers, and vice versa.  Mindy Lubber, president of global sustainability non-profit Ceres comments, “If climate change undermines the financial viability of the insurance industry, it will have a devastating impact on the [global] economy as well.“

Deteriorating insurer financials will initiate a negative feedback loop by reducing customer confidence, decreasing insurance policy sales and further damaging insurer financials.  To make matters worse, some businesses that buy insurance are carbon-intensive and could be seen as responsible and liable for causing global climate disruption, thus increasing insurer payout exposure.

Global insurers are rallying to reduce their exposure and to include climate disruption in their risk assessments and investment criteria.  Many insurers have signed the Statement of Environmental Commitment by the Insurance Industry, which commits the insurer signatories to work together with governments to identify solutions for air pollution and global climate disruption.  Most economists and many governments agree that the fastest, cheapest, simplest, and most effective climate policy is a carbon tax on corporate polluters with the proceeds of the tax returned to the taxpayers as income tax reductions.  Deployed successfully in a dozen countries, such a revenue-neutral carbon tax could be developed by governments working together with corporations including insurers.

European insurers and reinsurers (the large companies that insure insurance companies) have redirected their focus from climate adaptation to climate mitigation by advocating legislation that reduces carbon emissions.  Following the lead of their European counterparts, a small cadre of U.S. insurers have quietly lobbied the U.S. Congress for climate legislation over the past few years.

Trade Organizations

Insurance trade organizations provide legal, financial, education, and advocacy services for their insurer members. Developing guidance for business continuity and advocating climate legislation now consume an increasing part of these services.

The chief insurance regulators of each U.S. state are called commissioners and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is a trade organization that works to increase the resilience of the insurance industry.  NAIC president Sandy Praeger, writes, “Nearly anything that is insured … is vulnerable to weather-related events.”  If insurers suddenly received claims, not just on the seven trillion dollars worth of hurricane-prone U.S. East and Gulf Coast properties, but on a majority of policies, the industry would become insolvent.

The trade organization Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) strives to promote a globally competitive and financially robust reinsurance industry. In mid 2013, RAA President Frank Nutter testified before the U.S. Congress explaining that the insurance industry can only be effective as an enabler of change, “if the regulatory and legislative framework establishes the right incentives for emissions reduction and adaptation on a global scale.”  Simply put, insurers will be unable to scale up extreme weather loss coverages if governments fail to enact climate legislation and reign in future climate disruption.

Regulators

U.S. state insurance regulators’ mission is to impose standardized rules on the business of insurance, work to maintain the availability and affordability of insurance for customers, and guard against insurer bankruptcy.  Insurer Munich Re estimates that U.S. weather related losses increased nearly fourfold since 1980, with over a half trillion dollars of losses from extreme weather between 1980 to 2012.  The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that losses could hit a trillion dollars per year by 2040.  NAIC President Sandy Praeger comments, “State insurance regulators are aggressively moving forward to influence greater industry attention and action.”  To avoid a total failure of their mission, regulators have also started to advocate state and federal climate legislation, and are urging insurers to do likewise.

Insurer, trade organization, and regulatory studies have all arrived at the same conclusion.  Governments must enact strong climate legislation if the insurance industry is to remain intact.

Too Big To Fail

Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former Chairman and CEO of AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, said in late 2013, “Climate change is real, and you don’t risk the solvency of your company by saying, ‘I don’t believe it’.  A scenario more likely than failure is that the large insurers would stop offering coverage for weather or disaster related claims.  In an age of increasing disasters, this scenario is undesirable, and insurers can only narrow coverages for so long before climate disruption outpaces the insurers ability to downsize policies.  The stability of the industry is correlated to the stability of the climate.

Stakeholders
U.S. insurers have political clout. They spent $1.8 billion over the past twelve years lobbying the U.S. Congress, primarily on health insurance issues.  Urged by regulators, commissioners, executives, board members, shareholder resolutions, trade organizations, and customers, many insurers will be compelled to re-direct their political mojo to lobby for climate legislation in the U.S. Congress.  Triple the budget of the fossil fuel lobby, a big influx of insurance lobby spending would unarguably: increase the priority of climate legislation such as a revenue-neutral carbon tax, reduce carbon emissions, and stabilize the insurance industry.