Abstract
Climate change has been represented in a variety of ways. These representations have enacted their own discursive formations, which people discuss and act upon at local, national and global scales. Climate change was initially discussed within scientific disciplines and represented within a technical discourse. As it became popularised, through environmental organisations and the media, governments and intergovernmental bodies began to frame climate change within specific discursive formations, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (KP). These gave rise to forms of governance and discourse that have attained an almost hegemonic status, where climate change was framed within an overall neo-liberal governmental framework and network. As discursive formations of climate change were moved from science to government, they were transformed from a technical to a technocratic discourse. Institutional distance was created, resulting in the exclusion of other stakeholders and alternative discourses. Governance structures became elitist and exclusionary. The framing of climate change within global and national economic frameworks became the point of entry for stakeholders in climate change discussions.
Keywords
- Climate Change
- Ecological Modernisation
- Amazonian Rainforest
- Carbon Cycle Model
- Institutional Distance
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beck, U. 2007. World at risk. Cambridge: Polity Press.
—. 2006. The society of risk: towards a new modernity. Barcelona: Paidos.
—. 1992. Risk society: towards a new modernity. London: SAGE Publications.
Bernstein, S. 2001. The compromise of liberal environmentalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bernstein, S. 2000. Ideas, social structure and the compromise of liberal environmentalism. European journal of international relations, 6 (4), 464–512.
Bodansky, D. 2010. The Copenhagen climate change conference: a postmortem. The american journal of international law, 104 (2), 230–240.
Cadman, T. 2009. Quality, legitimacy and global governance: a comparative analysis of four forest institutions. PhD Thesis, University of Tasmania.
Copenhagen Accord. 18 December 2009. In: UNFCCC, Report of the Conference of the Parties on Its Fifteenth Session [hereinafter COP Report and session number], Addendum, at 5, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2009/11/Add.1 (30 March 2010) (advance version).
Cox, P.M., Betts, R.A., Collins, M., Harris, P.P., Huntingford, C. and Jones, C.D. 2004. Amazonian forest dieback under climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century. Theoretical and applied climatology, 78, 137–156.
Dean, M. 1996. Putting the technological into government. History of the human sciences, 9 (3), 47–68.
Demeritt, D. and Wainwright, J. 2005. Models, modelling and geography. In: N. Castree, A. Rodgers and D. Sherman, eds. Questioning geography. Oxford: Blackwell, 206–225.
Demeritt, D. 2001. The construction of global warming and the politics of science. Annuals of the association of american geographers, 91 (2), 307–337.
Dryzek, J. 2006. The politics of the earth: environmental discourses. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Eckersley, R. 1992. Environmentalism and political theory: towards an ecocentric approach. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Eden, S. 1999. ‘We have the facts’-how business claims legitimacy in the environmental debate. Environment and planning A, 31 (7), 1295–1309.
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analyzing discourse: textual analysis for social research. New York: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Foucault, M. 2008. The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the college de France1978–79. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, M. 2007. Security, territory and population: lectures at the college de France1977–78. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, M. 1994. Technologies of the Self. In: P. Ranibow and N. Rose, eds. The essential Foucault. New York: The New Press, 145–169.
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. Harmondsworth: Pengiun Books.
Foucault, M. 1972. The archaeology of knowledge. New York: Routledge.
Gordon, C. 1991. Governmental rationality: an introduction. In: G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller, eds. The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hay, P. 2002. Main currents in western environmental thought. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Hajer, M. A. 1995. The Politics of environmental discourse: ecological modernisation and the policy process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hansen, J. 2009. Storms of my grandchildren: the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity. New York: Bloomsbury.
Hindess, B. 1996. Discourses of power: from Hobbes to Foucault. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
Hulme, M., Dessai, S., Lorenzoni, I. and Nelson, D.R. 2009. Unstable climates: exploring the statistical and social constructions of ‘normal’ climate. Geoforum, 40, 197–206.
Iedema, R. 1997. The language of administration: organizing human activity in formal institutions, In: F. Christie and J.R. Martin, eds. Genre and institutions. London: Continuum.
Lemke, J. 1995. Textual politics: discourse and social dynamics. London: Taylor and Francis.
Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens W.W., III. 1972. The limits to growth: a report for the club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. London: Earth Island.
Oels, A. 2005. Rendering climate change governable: from biopower to advanced liberal government? Journal of environmental policy & planning, 7 (3), 185–207.
Oreskes, N. 2004. The scientific consensus on climate change. Science, 306 (5702), 1686.
Randalls, S. 2011. History of the 2°C climate target. WIREs climate change, 1 (4), 598–605.
Rose, N. 1999. Powers of freedom: reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rose, N. and Miller, P. 1992. Political power beyond the state: problematics of government. The British journal of sociology, 43 (2), 173–205.
Russill, C. and Nyssa, Z. 2009. The tipping point trend in climate change communication. Global environmental change, 19 (3), 336–344.
Rutherford, P. 1999. The construction of environmental awareness. In: E. Darier, ed. Discourses of the environment. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M. and Miller, H.L. (eds.) 2007. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, N. 2006, The economics of climate change: the Stern review, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
United Nations. (1992). Agenda 21: Programme of Action for Sustainable Development. United Nations Department of Public Information, New York.
Wright, M. and Hearps, P. 2010. Australian sustainable energy, zero carbon Australia stationary energy plan. Melbourne: Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Chris Taylor
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, C. (2013). The Discourses of Climate Change. In: Cadman, T. (eds) Climate Change and Global Policy Regimes. International Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006127_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006127_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43493-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-00612-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)