From a business risk to full-scale crisis: the understanding of ‘climate threat’ in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Reports

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article suggests that the business sector’s engagement in climate governance is not only expanding but also providing them with an increasingly influential role in determining how climate risks are framed and addressed. Using the methodological tools provided by the poststructuralist hegemony and discourse theory, the article analyses how the World Economic Forum has framed climate change as a security issue through its Global Risks Reports and what forms of authority and practice are promoted by this understanding.