Narratives of change: how climate change narratives have evolved since the 1970s

• Date: 13 December 2024
• Pages: 376-394
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-06-2024-0089
• Published date: 13 December 2024
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change
• Author: Zarina Kulaeva

Narratives of change: how climate

change narratives have

evolved since the 1970s

Zarina Kulaeva

IN3-Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Doctoral School, Department of Law and

Political Science, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we map the emerging climate narratives from the 1970s.

Second, we examine how these narratives have shaped climate governance in addr essing the consequences of

climate change. Our analysis is based on a set of 12 interviews with cli mate change experts from various f‌ields,

including climate science, environmental policy, and environmental sustainability. The theoretical framework

primarily draws from narrative analysis (Bruner, 1991; Riessman, 2005; Freema n, 2015), with a specif‌ic emphasis

on its application within climate change studies (Bottici, 2010; Bushell et al., 2015; Fløttum and Gjerstad, 2017).

Design/methodology/approach –The period of analysis starts from the 1970s. A period marked by

growing concernand the creation of national and global organizations to address the effectsof climate change.

Semistructuredinterviews were conducted with a sample of 12 experts in the f‌ield using narrativeanalysis. We

adopted an inductiveapproach, allowing climate narratives to emergeorganically from the interview data, and

facilitatingthe emergence of new topics and perspectives.

Findings –Through interviews with climate experts, this study identif‌ies three key narratives and critical

shortcomings related to climate governance. The dominant climate narratives identif‌ied are apocalyptic

environmentalism, greening capitalism and degrowth. Notably, greening capitalism and degrowth emerge as a

dichotomous framework for understanding and interpreting climate change .B y exploring these climate narratives,

we highlight f‌ive critical shortcomings related to climate governance: increasing citizen participation through a

bottom-up governance model, reforming the environmental subsidy framework, st rengthening the science-policy

interface, decoupling economic growth from energy dependence and developing inn ovative technological models

beyond traditional green growth approaches. As a result, clima te governance remains conf‌ined to these binary

frameworks, and the challenges that were promised to be addresse d decades ago largely remain unresolved.

Originality/value –The value of this study lies in the fact that,on the one hand, it uses narrative analysis to

investigate climategovernance, and on the other hand, it does so through interviewswith different actors. All

this facilitates a holistic approach,and from a 50-year historical perspective,this study traces an evolutionary

line of narrativesand identif‌ies the critical points of climate governance.

Keywords Climate change, Climate politics, Climate governance, Climate economy,Climate narratives

Paper type Research paper

© Zarina Kulaeva. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and

create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to

full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at

http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The author is grateful to Ivan Serrano and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful

comments and feedback on an earlier version of this article. All errors are the author’s.

Funding: This research is supported by the UOC Doctoral School Grant Program and the Urban

Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA) research group of the IN3.

Declaration of competing interest: None.

Disclosure statement: The author reported no potential conf‌lict of interest.

IJCCSM

17,1

376

Received5 June 2024

Revised14 November 2024

Accepted 18 November 2024

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.17 No. 1, 2025

pp. 376-394

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-06-2024-0089

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1756-8692.htm

1. Introduction

The evolving nature of climatenarratives from the 1970s to the present does not necessarily

speak about climate events. Rather,they implicitly show how the issue of climate change has

been addressed. These narratives may have impacted political decisions and international

agreements and guided societal behavior. For instance, narratives related to “apocalyptic

climate change”(Liverman, 2009;Foust and O’Shannon Murphy, 2009), “sustainable

development”(Jordan, 2008;Billi et al., 2022), degrowth or postgrowth (Latouche, 2010;

Hickel and Kallis, 2019;Demaria et al., 2013), among others. The fact that human activity

has caused changes in climate since the mid-18th century “is not a new thought”(Wagner,

2024, p. 6). Since the 1970s,the evidence in this area has become more compelling (Manabe

and Wetherald,1967;Keeling, 1970;Revelle, 1982).

The purpose of our article is twofold. First,we map emerging climate narratives from the

1970s. Second, we examine how, through these narratives, climate governance was

articulated to tackle the consequences of climate change. We used data from a set of

12 interviews with climate change experts from diverse f‌ields related to climate science,

environmental policy and environmentalsustainability. Our theoretical lens comes primarily

from narrative analysis (Bruner, 1991;Riessman, 2005;Freeman, 2015) and, particularly,

from narrative analysis applied to climatechange studies (Bottici, 2010;Bushell et al., 2015;

Fløttum and Gjerstad, 2017).

Before proceeding, we rely solely on the narratives that recognize climate change as an

undeniable phenomenon and its consequences for two main reasons. First, these narratives

ref‌lect the consensus (Oreskes, 2004) reached by the vast majority of international

organizations and the scientif‌ic community (Ripple et al., 2022), making them the

appropriate basis for any discussion on climatechange (Bretter and Schulz, 2023). Including

a denialist narrative (Norgaard,2011;Shue, 2023) may divert attention from effortsto tackle

climate issues. They lack scientif‌ic credibility, reject scientif‌ic evidence (Farmer and Cook,

2013), promote misinformation (Johnson et al.,2024) and discredit scientif‌ic institutions

(Mishra, 2024). We do not downplay their importance but emphasize that the search for

solutions stems from the acceptance of climate change, as suggested by the academic

literature (Goldberget al., 2019;Bretter and Schulz, 2023).

Our understanding of the complexities of climate change has been expanding through

ongoing research (Callendar, 1938). The pioneering work of J. Fourier, E. Foote and

J. Tyndall in the late 19th century laid the foundation for later groundbreaking studies

(Revelle,1965, 1982;Manabe and Wetherald, 1967;Keeling, 1970). In the 20th century,

efforts to connect CO

2

emissions from fossil fuels to global warming (Callendar, 1938;

Nordhaus, 1975;Schneider, 1975) were largely disregarded due to prevailing beliefs in

stable or declining global temperatures (Cooper, 1978) and the ocean’s capacity to absorb

excess CO

2

(Revelle, 1982). The context of the 1970s oil crises highlighted the reckless

exploitation of natural resources andthe urgent need for strategic planning, given their f‌inite

nature (Schelling, 1979). The 1972 Stockholm Conference depicted two key principles: to

ensure environmental conditions for “a life of dignity and well-being”(Sohn, 1973, p. 452)

and safeguard the natural resources “for the benef‌it ofpresent and future generations”(Sohn,

1973, p. 456). Here, the goal of countering the effects of CO

2

while using natural resources

was viewed through the “desired technical solution”(Hardin, 1968, p. 1243), whereas

environmental preservation became a paramount issue due to the depletion of fossil fuel

resources (Hafele et al., 1981). Technology emerged as the central driving force and, in

conjunction with economic growth, has beenpositioned as a critical element for the climate

crisis (Peccei, 1979;Fulkersonet al., 1990).

International

Journal of Climate

Change Strategies

and Management

377