Legislative and Policy Issues

Abstract:

This paper focuses on adaptation strategies in which firms can respond to climate change. Adaptive capacity is mostly related with development and it aims at enhancing system resilience to multiple kinds of disturbance. Human activities like deforestation that lead to climate change are discussed and their impacts on the organization in future. This paper also focuses on the Legislative and policy issues and how they influence non-governmental organizations, and also how improving the economic and social status of the people can lead to environmental sustainability.

Introduction

A change in the climate of a particular place is unusual when compared to other environmental issues affecting an organization. Climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing the world. People have to know how to respond to matters of climate change in order to avoid its adverse effects on the environment. There is a need to work for a low carbon society that will influence the development of policy across all areas of activity. This includes mitigation and adaptation strategies and the identification of the response to climate trends. The major aim of legislative and policy issues of most organizations is to stabilize the emission of harmful gases and poisonous substances that may cause climate change.

Human activities may directly or indirectly cause climate change. Climate changes caused by anthropogenic activities that lead to the emission of green house gases have been witnessed in various places. The effects of the emission of green house gases are now visible in the increased temperatures of the earth. Other indicators of climate change are the increased melting of ice during dry spells. In addition, climate change leads to further sea level rise that poses a danger to coastal areas with erosion and floods. Moreover, it also leads to extreme weather and changes of precipitation patterns on global scale that causes floods and drought. Climate change also causes a change in local ecosystems due to the changed circumstances that may also disturb water cycles. Impacts of climate change are also seen in agriculture, water management, forestry and human settlements. 

Environmental NGOs work hard to protect the environment and contribute to global effort against climate change directly and indirectly through ensuring the integration of environmental concerns into economic and sectoral policies. NGOs play a great deal in ensuring that climate change does not affect the lives of the people they serve. NGOs support people with the aim of improving the economic and social status of the people in the environments in which they live. According to Adger N, 1999, pp 268, climate, change poses a lot of insecurity to the people. Environmental NGOs like the green peace and friends of earth are some of the organizations that handle matters of climate change. NGOs help in dealing with climate change by developing creative policy solutions, campaigning for change in matters that lead to climate change and informing people on the importance of taking care of the environment, Aggarwal P. K. et al, 2004, pp 489.

Legislative and policy issues to climate change

According to Alexandratos N, 1995, pp 59, the use of mandatory approaches for the reduction of emissions from large manufacturing companies, vehicles and power generation characterize the legislative and policy issues in environmental NGOs concerning climate change. They also ensure flexible approaches to establishing a price for carbon that varies from one country to another. Moreover, NGO legislation allows incentives that encourage various countries to make use of green house gas reduction strategies. These policies form the basis for climate change bill in many countries.

Various organizations have different legislative and policy issues that help in their running. Any organization that has no proper legislative and policy issues needs to adopt them in order to change their organizational climate, Alexandratos N, 1995, pp 54. Legislative and policy issues can be geared towards competition, access of materials and customers, fair-trading and consumer protection. Legislative and policy framework in an organization has three main key features. These features include the general application of the policies, implementation and the balancing of substantive framework. Legislative and policy issues help organizations to ask for support as their administration may require. An organization like NGO has to ensure proper legislative and policy issues that help to run it. In the non- governmental organization, proper legislative and policy issues helps in decision-making and the running of the organization, Dube P, 2004, pp 13.

According to Amthor J, 2001, pp 32, traditional policy making in environmental NGOs is often stimulated by research findings or highly publicized environmental events. Politicization, public awareness coalescence of interest groups is one of the focuses of environmental NGOs concerning climate change. The policy makers and legislators in environmental NGOs have to make laws and regulations to address matters of climate change. These organizations have to influence people to work together to bring about a change in the way they use the environment. They work as law enforces and file suit against the companies that break environmental laws. They also alert the public on possible climate changes and how to address such issues.

One of the key legislative and policy issues in NGOs is that they work together with all relevant departments in order to succeed in their operations. The organization ensures good coordination of all the departments in order to maximize on their services. Policy and legislative issues in organizations also help in the measuring of the organization's performance. The legislative and policy issues of the NGOs must comply with its obligations. According to Bohle H, 2005, pp 76, the legislative and policy issues of the non-governmental organization enforce environmental protection to ensure that the factors that affect the environment are addressed accordingly. In addition, NGO has a policy to provide new infrastructure for waste recovery and improve the recycling facilities in order to ensure efficient waste management.

According to Fischer G, 2002, 152, one key legislative and policy issue in the NGO is the use of official foreign languages. The organization ensures that they use English as their official language and stakeholders in this organization are therefore supposed to be proficient in English language. This ensures that the organization performs its activities well as compared to other organizations of its kind. Moreover, official language policy is essential in NGOs because they operate in various countries that use different languages. Environmental NGOs focuses on policies that deal with climate change. One of these policies is the premeditated demonstration of the viability of climate change action. They also have another policy on the creation and expansion of markets that leads to more profits for people. Moreover, they engage in the enlightening of the society on the policies that prevent human activities that contribute to climate change. Lastly, they ensure proper proliferation of customs that help in insistent climate change action.

The aim of environmental NGOs has shifted from focusing on the effects of policy change to engaging directly in the markets. These environmental NGOs act as integrators through seeking constructive corporate partnerships or polarizers. Corporate partnerships like green peace and rainforest action network tend to disrupt the status quo through confrontation. These corporate partnerships may affect the policy process in the environmental NGOs through unintended consequences.

One of the climate change policies in the environmental NGOs is the federal policy. According to Fuhrer J, 2003, pp 19, the federal policy consists of elements such as GHG intensity, GHG emission reduction and the continued scientific study of climate change and the adoption of emission reducing technologies. The federal policy on climate change supports the monitoring of climate change, examines the causes of climate change and invests in projects that assist in policymaking. Climate change can lead to bad effects like global warming that affects the lives of people. In this connection, organizations have to come up with legislative and policy issues that prevent climate change. Environmental NGOs have to find ways to address matters of high emission of poisonous gases like carbon dioxide in the environment. High concentration of harmful gases in the environment leads to climate change and this causes effects to the human society.

Market expansion and pricing is another legislative and policy issue in the environmental NGOs. They encourage the proper use of renewable energy and the purchase of higher efficiency products by the public. These policies help to prevent climate change through poor use of the environment. These policies also help the NGOs to control their internal purchasing and they can increase markets for more energy efficient products. According to Amthor J, 2001, pp 23, decline in the use of energy efficient products and techniques would result economic and social disasters through increased emissions.

Policy diffusion and learning is also another legislative issue in NGOs that deal with the environment. They ensure that the public is well informed with ideas related to climate change.  Social learning enables environmental NGOs to pass knowledge and ideas from one person to another. In addition, social learning ensures that people learn about environmental groups in clusters. Promulgation and norm creation is another legislative and policy issue in environmental NGOs.  NGOs believe that the public contribute a lot to climate change and therefore policies have to be enacted to shape the behaviors that are considered appropriate.

Another climate change policy is the state action. According to this policy, the state should help in making climate change policies in instances where the federal policy does not succeed. In this connection, the state should permit environmental NGOs to help in matters that negative climate change, Shah M, 2005, pp 360. In addition, the environmental NGOs should alert people on the consequences of climate change. State action policies on climate change emphasize on the development of renewable energy. The legislation of many environmental organizations aim at increasing their goals that ensures reduction in emission of poisonous gases, Steffen W, 1999, pp 229. Such gases include carbon dioxide that is produced in oil refining and cement manufacturing plants.

Economic competitiveness and development is another climate change policy in many Environmental NGOs. According to Clair G. and Simon S. 2002, pp 56, economic competitiveness and development helps in the diversification of energy generation through the promotion of renewable energy sources. In addition, economic competitiveness and development ensures economic growth by improving land use and agricultural policies that makes use of excess carbon in the air, Thornton P, 2003, pp 55. This in turn helps in the prevention of negative climate change.

Public awareness is another legislative and policy issue on climate change in environmental NGOs. These NGOs have to ensure that the public is made aware of actions that may lead to negative climate change. Moreover, good leadership is also part the environmental NGO policies that is aimed at showing the public the right way to use the environment in order to prevent negative climate change. Environmental NGOs should also educate the public on the effects of global warming. In this connection, the scientific and technical experts should ensure good public education and improved communication, Henrik S. and Stacy D. 2007, pp 23. The legislative and policy issues in NGOs influence these organizations to ensure that they encourage people to use their environment well to avoid negative environmental effects such as global warming.

How organizations can respond to climate change

According to David G, 2004, pp 78, environmental NGOs need to know how to respond to opportunities that may be brought about by climate change. Different organizations apply different methods while handling matters of climate change. One of the things that the NGOs can do in response to climate change is to seek for public support to adhere to policies that support proper use of the environment, Evans L. 1998, pp 76. In addition, they should also request the public to accept policies regarding the reduction of poisonous gas emissions. This would entail working hand in hand with industries that emit poisonous gases in their production processes. The acceptance of emission reductions will help to prevent climatic change. Environmental NGOs should also have enough resources for public awareness campaigns. This would help in educating the public on the effects of climate change. Moreover, they should also organize workshops and conferences to generate data and ideas of climate change. This would further enlighten the public on matters of climate change and how to deal with the consequences of climate change, David G, 2004, pp 96.

The provision of quality infrastructure is an important way of protecting the environment as well as preventing climate change. NGOs also need to develop and implement innovative approaches and solutions to climate change as a way of dealing with the opportunities brought about by climate change.

NGOs also prefer to connect climate change issues with various local and individual frames of references in order to engage more public in matters of climate change. They also make use of discursive strategies that enable them to pursue exhaustive climate change policy action. They should set up measures to reduce green gas emissions and integrate climate change adaptation issues into decision making at national and local level. In addition, NGOs should legislate for an energy efficiency standard for light bulbs to reduce emissions as a way to deal with climate change. Moreover, they should also participate in a wider international work to address regional and global environmental problems and ensure full compliance with obligations.

In order to address climate change, environmental NGOs should provide the legislative and policy framework for protecting the environment. They should also strengthen the enforcement role of the environmental protection agency in order to avoid negative climatic changes.  Environmental NGOs have to implement the policies and measures in the national climate change strategy that will help in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to deal with climate change. They should also publicize a strategy on adaptation to climate change.

Another way to deal with climate change opportunities is to enforce environmental protection measures in addressing bad effects to the climate. Recycling is another measure that can be undertaken to address climate change issues. This can be addressed by advocating for the recycling of waste products in the manufacturing industries. Environmental NGOs should therefore take it as their responsibility to advice large manufacturing companies to engage in the recycling of waste products in order to eliminate its effects in the environment. Recycling helps in good waste management and this helps to prevent climate change. In this connection, environmental NGOs should work with local authorities to enforce and intensify waste management practices that help to prevent climate change.

Environmental NGOs have to manage and reduce the emission of green house gases since this helps to prevent its effects on the climate. They should carry out research that to come up with new ways of protecting the environment. In addition, they can lobby, communicate and campaign negotiations that can help in addressing issues of climate change, Henrik S. and Stacy D. 2007, pp 83..

According to Henrik S. and Stacy D. 2007, pp 98, building, adaptive capacity instead of relying on the adaptation strategies is another way in which environmental NGOs can respond to climate change. Adaptive capacity is mostly related with development and it aims at enhancing system resilience to multiple kinds of disturbance. They should also discourage human activities like deforestation that lead to climate change. They should therefore engage in processes such as reforestation in order to prevent the adverse effects of climate change.