Читать курсовая по экологии: "Climate change adaptation strategies for international energy companies" Страница 2

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· For the whole research relevant news, media and professional articles were reviewed and taken into account.

According to "The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" (UNFCCC) climate change is a change of climate which "is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods" . Researchers and scientists still argue on whether the human activity is the only cause of climate change but the majority agrees that anthropogenic activity impacts climate change in a varying degree. This majority in 2010 accounted for more than 97% of all the researchers engaged in climate change issue. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also concluded, that human activities, particularly emissions of carbon dioxide, are very likely to be the dominant cause of climate change. This degree of probability in scientific world is equal to 95-100% and it means that scientists are nowadays as confident in anthropogenic causes of climate change as in the connection between smoking and lungs cancer.sector is usually considered as the major contributor to climate change because of amount of carbon dioxide emissions the industry causes. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) there is a direct correlation between the anomalies of annual average temperatures of the planet and the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere (see p.55, Appendix, Graph 1). The energy sector influence might become evident if we observe the share of the world’s CO2 emissions from burning of fossil fuel: in 2013 it reached almost 90%. (see p.55, Appendix, Graph 2).the same time, these are energy companies who face major challenges from climate change. They are suffering climate change risks, recognizing the importance of the biophysical environment and implementing strategies into their regular management practices in order to combat environmental issues. This phenomenon is known as corporate environmentalism - the process by which firms integrate environmental concerns into their decision-making process.are various perceptions of climate change interrelation to businesses. The British economist Nicholas Stern stated that climate change is "the largest market failure" and that "the benefits of strong, early action on climate change outweigh the costs”. In other words, he argued that climate change is a problem, which need to be fixed with policies and corporate actions. In his review, Stern proved, that although greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are driven by economic growth, combating climate change is feasible and consistent with continued growth. It requires transition to low-carbon economy, which undoubtedly regards competitiveness challenges for corporations, but at the same time brings new opportunities for them.suggested the following actions, that corporations should take to minimize their impact and combat climate change:

· emissions trading as a way of promoting cost-effective reduction;

· development of "green" technologies through R&D;

· actions to reduce deforestation;

· implementation of adaptation strategies.

It seems that nowadays the majority of big corporations are concerned with climate change issues. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) organization, in 2015 552 companies have responded to Carbon Action program and 77% of them have carbon-emissions reduction targets. Corporations implement sustainability programs and policies, create specific departments, market their products as "green" and organize tree-planting events as a part of their team-building and CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities.seek to make climate change manageable to improve the image of the company, they use the trend to increase the profits. Unfortunately, they also obstruct desperately needed and more radical alternatives, which mainly happens because of the reasons lying under such responses.

Corporate responses to climate change are often shaped by the need to react to a broad range of risks and opportunities. However, such responses sometimes produce further unforeseen consequences for companies. "British Petroleum" ("BP”) rebranding into "BP - Beyond Petroleum" in 2000 is probably one of the most famous examples of corporate engagements in climate change issue. The rebranding was meant to portray "BP” as an energy, not just an oil company. The new logo of the company was made to show the company’s "commitment to the environment and solar power" and promote the new "BP” as "the supermajor of choice for the environmentally-aware motorist”. However, in reality, "BP” did not disguise its plans to ever-increase its oil and gas exploration and to grow its core business. Furthermore, Beder criticized "BP” for using rebranding and emphasizing solar investments to withstand the critics against its Arctic exploration. She underlined, that though the company had invested in solar power, it spent even more money on "green" reputation. "An oil company might invest in solar energy and admit that global warming should be prevented, but it will do all it can to ensure it can go on drilling for fossil fuels and expanding its markets for them” - she stated. In 2007, "BP” disbanded its renewable energy divisions and refocused on oil exploration and production. In 2010, after an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the company was publicly accused in "greenwashing” and hypocrisy. Thus, using climate change and environmental issues to cover its reputational complications only brought new problems to the company.majority of

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