Constructing Climate Governance: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Danish Reports on Climate Effects (2020 - 2024)
(2025) UTVK03 20251Sociology
- Abstract
- This thesis investigates how the Ministry of Climate,- Energy,- and Utilities employs different environmental discourses in the Reports on Climate Effects between 2020 and 2024. Furthermore, it explores how these discourses change through the years and interrogates implications of the Ministry’s employment of specific environmental discourses. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis grounded in a critical realist ontology to examine the discursive underpinnings of official climate narratives. Drawing on Dryzek’s (2013) typology of environmental discourses, the research identifies the dominant discourses present in the reports, as Administrative Rationalism, Ecological Modernization, and Economic Rationalism. These discourses frame... (More)
- This thesis investigates how the Ministry of Climate,- Energy,- and Utilities employs different environmental discourses in the Reports on Climate Effects between 2020 and 2024. Furthermore, it explores how these discourses change through the years and interrogates implications of the Ministry’s employment of specific environmental discourses. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis grounded in a critical realist ontology to examine the discursive underpinnings of official climate narratives. Drawing on Dryzek’s (2013) typology of environmental discourses, the research identifies the dominant discourses present in the reports, as Administrative Rationalism, Ecological Modernization, and Economic Rationalism. These discourses frame climate action as a matter of technocratic management,economic efficiency, and technological optimism, sidelining concerns related to justice,systemic transformation, and global equity. Further, Denmark is persistently framed as a
global climate frontrunner.
The study argues for the performative function of the reports in projecting governmental control and successful mitigation strategies, despite persistent uncertainties and implementation failures particularly in relation to high-risk technocentric solutions. While elements of Democratic Pragmatism, Green Politics, and the Discourse of Limits begin to surface in later reports, they remain carefully contained within dominant discourses. Notably, the discourse of Sustainable Development is largely marginalized. The study reveals a
narrow, status quo-oriented discursive framework that fails to engage with the systemic transformations necessary for just and deep decarbonization. This research contributes to climate policy literature by exposing the exclusion of certain analyses from Danish climate governance and advocates for the inclusion of more pluralistic and justice-oriented discursive
imaginaries of socio-ecological transformation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9193997
- author
- Lund, Victoria Iris Hjordt LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- UTVK03 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- climate governance, critical discourse analysis, Denmark, climate policy, ecological modernization, climate justice, sustainable development.
- language
- English
- id
- 9193997
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-19 15:36:44
- date last changed
- 2025-06-19 15:36:44
@misc{9193997,
abstract = {{This thesis investigates how the Ministry of Climate,- Energy,- and Utilities employs different environmental discourses in the Reports on Climate Effects between 2020 and 2024. Furthermore, it explores how these discourses change through the years and interrogates implications of the Ministry’s employment of specific environmental discourses. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis grounded in a critical realist ontology to examine the discursive underpinnings of official climate narratives. Drawing on Dryzek’s (2013) typology of environmental discourses, the research identifies the dominant discourses present in the reports, as Administrative Rationalism, Ecological Modernization, and Economic Rationalism. These discourses frame climate action as a matter of technocratic management,economic efficiency, and technological optimism, sidelining concerns related to justice,systemic transformation, and global equity. Further, Denmark is persistently framed as a
global climate frontrunner.
The study argues for the performative function of the reports in projecting governmental control and successful mitigation strategies, despite persistent uncertainties and implementation failures particularly in relation to high-risk technocentric solutions. While elements of Democratic Pragmatism, Green Politics, and the Discourse of Limits begin to surface in later reports, they remain carefully contained within dominant discourses. Notably, the discourse of Sustainable Development is largely marginalized. The study reveals a
narrow, status quo-oriented discursive framework that fails to engage with the systemic transformations necessary for just and deep decarbonization. This research contributes to climate policy literature by exposing the exclusion of certain analyses from Danish climate governance and advocates for the inclusion of more pluralistic and justice-oriented discursive
imaginaries of socio-ecological transformation.}},
author = {{Lund, Victoria Iris Hjordt}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Constructing Climate Governance: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Danish Reports on Climate Effects (2020 - 2024)}},
year = {{2025}},
}