The role of information flow in climate change policy formation in New Zealand: A social analysis

Climate change threatens all nations of the world with risk of adverse environmental consequences. Science has linked the mechanisms of climate change to the emission of greenhouse gases produced by human industry. Yet despite this, most societies around the globe lack the incentive to implement national policy to mitigate climate change for fear of short-term economic loss. New Zealand is the first nation outside of the European Union to create an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere from domestic greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of which come from agricultural production. In this study, I examine the discourse about climate change in New Zealand's media and examine though survey data how different sectors of the economy responded to impending carbon legislation. To do this I model communication networks that operated in New Zealand to disseminate climate science from the IPCC and other research organizations. I also examine the action network that formed an advocacy coalition around passage of the ETS. This research is an extensive study of how climate change was operationalized within New Zealand and how a policy instrument was drafted and passed in order to address climate change.