Abstract
With the purpose of getting to know the cultural and socio-political mechanisms that shape the climate agenda, this study follows a discourse analysis method and a gender perspective, for which an analytical basis is proposed to identify the cognitive, normative, and symbolic components that give meaning and substance to climate policy. Examining the productions of international organizations responsible for generating climate policy, a corpus consisting of 47 documents (reports, communications, programs, and legal framework) was analyzed, spanning from 1994 to 2015, to identify the trend of climate agenda prior to the Paris Agreement. The results indicate that the terms in which climate change is placed as a public issue contribute to reproducing a social order based on an anthropocentric, utilitarian, virtualized, and mercantilist vision of socio-environmental relations. Control mechanisms of peripheral countries and groups whose rights have been breached by discriminatory practices can emerge in this process, with women being especially affected. Based on empirical findings that follow the first two decades of climate policy, the logic underlying the climate discourse is shown, and the challenges it poses to reach more fair and sustainable agreements are discussed. Finally, some proposals are outlined to help guide the climate agenda in that direction.
Highlights
Climate change is frequently addressed as a natural science phenomenon, as this is the field that provides a basis for its understanding
It is widely recognized that climate change has anthropogenic causes; it is a phenomenon produced by human activities associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
What was shown here is that climate change is a social construct insomuch that, to turn it into a public issue, it goes through cognitive, normative, and symbolic operations that present the problem in such a way that the current socio-economic order is reproduced, power relations are reinforced at various levels, and socio-environmental relations are legitimized in instrumental terms
Summary
Climate change is frequently addressed as a natural science phenomenon, as this is the field that provides a basis for its understanding. The aim of this work is to show an analytical route to reveal the terms in which climate change is explained, the knowledge that is privileged, the type of actions that are promoted, the positions in the decision making process, the inclusion of women, and the gender agenda in the climate policy, as well as the narratives offered to imagine a common future. It is through this process that ecological phenomena acquire meaning and become important; they constitute the filters through which social action unfolds in response to an environmental problem
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
