ENGO Communication Management Towards Climate Change: Solutions in Port City

Introduction

Every society deserves to live in a clean unpolluted area, but in times of rapid climate change, it becomes a real challenge. There are worldwide agreements and various regulations that help to organize modern life with regard to sustainability. Almost two hundred countries have agreed on sustainable development goals and Agenda 2030 is prepared that should help to fight climate change and reach better conditions for every living in the Globe. Society itself from the individual point must protect the environment, but many problems are born by the industry that businesses do in the city area. According to Korten (1990), the power of social movements was ignored for decades with the attention focused on money rather than the quality of social life and development. Nevertheless, people have become more organized and active, the society still stands in the conflicts against environmentally harmful businesses and the political power that supports them. On the one hand authorities (local in particular) should fulfil the requirements of businesses that support their election campaigns, on the other hand, they have won a mandate to serve the public, and thus must protect society’s rights (Powel 2013; Palttala et al. 2012).

In this complicated situation, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can help to strengthen society’s power as an initiative to engage society comes rather from NGOs (bottom-up) than government officials. NGOs strategically focus on public policy problems, implementation activities, and cooperation areas. Environmental issues are the area of focus of environmental NGOs (ENGO), which can achieve positive changes in many global and local ecologic issues.

As such, communication experts highlight the importance of focusing on target audiences for releasing appropriate missions and sending effective messages through various communication channels. The model of governance, however, declares not the simple hearing of society’s voice but its involvement in decision-making. Therefore, Hue (2017) proposes a two-way symmetrical communication that engages all parties as equal partners seeking common relations based on mutual understanding and needs. The success of such communication would be determined by clearly formulated strategic priorities, vision and mission of communication activities. It is also important to monitor stakeholders’ perceptions and to understand the way of thinking as well as the behaviours of various groups (Palttala et al. 2012). Social media provides opportunities for everyone to message about their goals and achievements, or in other words to communicate to society and officials.

Agreeing on the effectiveness of two-way symmetrical communication management, we perceive that well-managed bottom-up communication can foster ENGO to become more powerful in networking with government and other stakeholders which means more sustainable governance, and argue that the success of such communication depends on its management.

Research context and problem. The future is foreseen as uncertain and challenging due to population growth that influences rapid economic growth and higher greenhouse gas emissions. Moor (2009) argues that climate change is the defining environmental problem of this century. Previous studies revealed a direct interrelation between air pollution and climate change. Orru, Ebi and Forsberg (2017) argue that both factors affect each other (climate affects air quality and vice versa) and at the same time, they both reduce the quality of human life. Both factors also can cause serious health problems. Air pollution is named a serious problem, especially in industrial territories and cities (Orru, Ebi and Forsberg 2017; D’Amato et al. 2015; Michie and Cooper 2015; Moore 2009; Bulkeley and Betsill 2003).