Constructing Climate Governance
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Danish Reports on Climate Effects (2020 - 2024)
Keywords:
climate governance, Critical Discourse Analysis, Climate Policy, Denmark, Environmental DiscourseAbstract
This paper investigates how environmental discourses are employed by the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities in its Report on Climate Effects (2020 – 2024). Drawing on Fairclough’s (1989) model of Critical Discourse Analysis and Dryzek’s (2022) typology of environmental discourses, the paper examines how official climate discourses frame, prioritize and legitimize specific approaches to climate governance. The analysis finds that the reports predominantly draw on discourses of Administrative Rationalism, Ecological Modernization, and Economic Rationalism, positioning climate change as a governable and technocratic challenge compatible with economic growth and technological innovation. This framing is reinforced through quantified metrics, procedural roadmaps, and repetitive references to policy milestones, contributing to a depoliticized portrayal of climate mitigation as a matter of optimization rather than political contestation. However, traces of a Discourse of Limits emerge in later reports, reflecting a growing acknowledgment of uncertainty and complexity inherent in deep decarbonization. These moments introduce affective and urgent framings that partially destabilize the prevailing rationalist discourses. This paper highlights how strategic deployment of environmental discourses can function as a governance mechanism, structuring what is rendered thinkable, actionable and legitimate in Denmark’s green transition.
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