The temporalisation of global climate change discourse: a critical analysis of temporality and climate justice in COP26 and COP27

Abstract

Global climate change discourse is currently dominated by a linear temporality, reflected in future-oriented climate action, and an eschatological temporality, associated with a discourse of climate urgency. However, climate change is a phenomenon unfolding with uneven severity across the world, which poses the question of which countries are most climate-vulnerable. This thesis investigates how linear and eschatological temporalities influence states’ perceptions of and responses to climate change, and how these temporal approaches relate to states’ political priorities. Furthermore, I focus on how states’ temporal framings of climate change intersect with their position in the distribution of climate impacts. To do this, I adopt a sociological approach to the study of time, examining the concepts of linear and eschatological temporalities, together with climate justice and the most prevalent contemporary discourses on climate change. Moreover, I develop a model of critical discourse analysis to assess 14 speeches from five international actors delivered during the 26th and 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties. The findings indicate that states who are less climate-vulnerable (e.g., US, EU) perceive climate change as an imminent threat and put forward future-oriented climate policies reproducing a linear temporality. Second, especially vulnerable states who prioritise socioeconomic development (e.g., African Group, G77 + China), view climate change as an ongoing eschaton and respond through climate finance demands that mobilise a linear temporality. Lastly, the most climate-vulnerable states (e.g., SIDS) perceive climate change as an ongoing apocalypse, thus prioritising adaptation and demanding climate justice through an eschatological temporality.