Lobbying Case Study

Lobbying Case Study
The Alliance for Climate Protection

European Institute of Communications
Diploma, Public Relations
Christopher Mehigan
June 29th, 2009
Friday, 17 July 2009

Campaign Brief


Founded in 2006 by former
US Vice President and
Nobel Laureate, Al Gore.

Engaging individuals, communities
and governments across the world

to demand their political, business and community
leaders address the issue of climate change

Committed to igniting
public action to help
solve the climate crisis
2006

A bold plan to Repower
America with 100% clean
2008
electricity within 10 years.

Raising awareness of the
reality of the coal industry

Outline of Principle
Objectives


[...] the importance and urgency of adopting
and implementing effective and
comprehensive solutions of the climate crisis.


Moving the USA past a tipping point,
beyond which the majority of
leaders in both major political
parties and all sectors of civil society
compete to offer genuinely
effective proposals [...] that will
sharply reduce emissions of greenhouse
gas pollutants.


Creating a critical mass
of public opinion in
support of active US
participation in the
international effort to
enact a genuinely effective
new treaty to reduce global
greenhouse gas pollution


Generating
overwhelming
support - within
the US and around
the globe - for new
American
leadership in the
international efforts
to solve the climate
crisis


Persuading individuals, families,
communities, states, corporations,
and other organisations to begin to
quickly and meaningfully reduce their
own global warming pollution - and
to offset the remainder - in order to
become “carbon neutral”.

(c) TDR1


Not interested in institutional longevity for its own sake, we
expect that once these objectives have been met, other
established organisations can carry on the work as necessary
and that the Alliance will no longer need to exist as a stand
alone entity.


©2008 The Alliance for Climate Protection.

Target Publics
The American Public
The Wider Public
Business Leaders
Politicians
Legislators
Community Leaders
Academics
Media


Tools and Tactics Used


Unprecedented in scale for a public policy issue, the Alliance for
Climate Protection’s “We” Campaign draws from the best
practices of successful commercial, social marketing and political
campaigns. The We Campaign combines advertising, online
organizing and partnerships with a diverse and growing group of
grassroots organizations, to educate the American public on the
urgent need to solve the climate crisis and activate them to
demand real solutions from elected ofﬁcials


Advertising Campaigns

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and Speaker Newt Gingrich (R), Washington, DC

It’s American to disagree. It’s also American
to come together in the face of a challenge.
And few challenges are as urgent as global
climate change. Take one minute to join us
at œecansolveit.org and add your voice to
millions of others.Together we can solve the
climate crisis.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and Speaker Newt Gingrich (R), Washington, DC

It’s American to disagree. It’s also American
to come together in the face of a challenge.
And few challenges are as urgent as global
©2008 The Alliance for Climate climate change. Take one minute to join us
Protection
at œecansolveit.org and add your voice to
millions of others.Together we can solve the
climate crisis.


Advertising Campaigns

You
It’s too big for one person
to solve. It’s going to take
all of us, working together.
The good news is, the

can’t solutions already exist. But
the only way œe’re going
to get them is by sending

solve
a powerful message to
our corporations and our
government. More than

the
a million people, from all
walks of life and across the
political spectrum, have
already come together to

climate make their voices heard.
Now œe need you. Take
one minute to join us at

crisis
œecansolveit.org. Because
you can’t solve the climate
crisis on your own.

©2008 The Alliance for Climate Protection.

Spokes-person
Former US Vice President Al Gore

Long standing campaigner for
environment

Guest speaker at TED conference in
2006, 2008, 2009

2007 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
along with the IPCC for his work
raising awareness of climate change

(c) world economic forum 2005

A Global
W AR N ING
Released in 2006 to wide critical acclaim

Academy Award for best documentary 2006

Stimulated widespread debate and calls for
action

Well received politically and credited for
stimulating debate

what has changed ... is a feeling that we
have entered a period of consequences
:Al Gore


Online
Tools
Strong online community
established

Provision of various “Calls
to Action”

Online community is
organised, connected
and deployable


Similarity to 5 key rules


1) Determine the Inequality
• No longer an inequality
• Previously may have focused on amount of investment in
Renewable Energy

• Combating Climate Change is now a Global Movement
• Inaction can lead to environmental, economic and humanitarian
consequences


2) Demonstrate the inequality
• Unique Global aspect to the issue
• Subject to worldwide scientiﬁc scrutiny
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports
• Stern report (UK) economic cost
• Kyoto accord / Bali action Plan
• Demonstrating the existence of actual solutions and alternative
technologies and practices


3) Dramatise the Issue
• An Inconvenient Truth
• Ongoing advertising and media campaigns
• Al Gore still advancing the issue and informing people
• Continued appearances on international stage (TED)


4) Have it Brought to Issue
• Use of community to lobby politicians
• Focussed communication campaigns to keep politicians and
companies in the spotlight and held to account

• Promotion of businesses leading with alternative solutions


5) Anticipate the Recourse to
Principle
• Fact - removed (IPCC 4th Assessment Report)
• Intent - irrelevant: campaign is not seeking to blame for previous
actions, seeks to hold to account for continuing actions

• Means - Highlighting new technologies / demonstrating
technological, ﬁscal and environmental beneﬁts (tackling the
economy and the environment)

• Capacity - targeting all sectors, bringing together actors
• Right - Moral issue - about the future which we all have a stake in

Success or otherwise of
Campaign


• We Members Forward National Dialogue with Letters to the Editor
• Thousands Urge the Press to Ask Questions on Global Warming
• Stunning Response to Calls for a Global Treaty
• State Department Feels Public Pressure in Run-up to Climate Conference
• Florida Governor Raking on Climate Change
• Colorado Voters Pass Renewable Energy Standards; Governor Doubles
Them!

• Wind Energy Is Replacing a History of Oil in One Texas Town

END

Christopher Mehigan
June 29th, 2009


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