Assessing National Discourse and Local Governance Framing of Climate Change for Adaptation in the United Kingdom

Climate change adaptation in the planning of England’s coastal urban areas: priorities, barriers and future prospects

“…Fourth, LA budgets have been subject to extensive cuts due to austerity measures following the 2008 recession (Porter, et al, 2015;Romsdahl, et al, 2017). A study by the TCPA ( 2016) assessed 64 authorities across England for their responses to climate change and concluded that, because of resource constraints, climate change was no longer a priority in local planning.…”

Climate Change Communication in the United Kingdom

“…The passing of the Climate Change Act in 2008 institutionalized the issue and the subject matter was just as likely to be covered using a business/policy frame as a scientific frame (Philo & Happer, 2013). Romsdahl et al (2017) examined newspaper articles in the British quality press over the period 2004-2014 and found a substantial increase in newspaper coverage of climate change from 2004 until mid-2007. This period in the lead up to the passing of the Climate Change Act, as well as the publication of the IPCC Fourth Report on Climate Change, was marked by what they call a 'green hero' discourse which portrayed the UK government as heroic in its efforts to tackle climate change.…”

“…The US stock market crash of 2008 and the global economic recession marked a period where there was a marked slump in the UK press coverage of climate change, with the exception of a spike that occurred at the end of 2009 with the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit email controversy, which became referred to as 'Climategate', and the run up to COP15 (Romsdahl et al, (2017). Despite the passing of the Climate Change Act, with binding requirements to reduce emissions domestically by 80% in 2050 from 1990 levels, the UK government shifted away from addressing climate change through a sustainability discourse and returned to a problem-solving discourse, focusing on industrialism and economic growth.…”

“…Nuclear power is a significant source of energy generation in the UK, but while there has been a history of framing nuclear power as helping to provide a 'solution' to climate change public opinion research has consistently suggested that citizens would rather opt for renewable energy, and the Fukishima accident did little to dent this preference in the long term (Doyle, 2011a;Pidgeon et al, 2008;Steentjes et al, 2017). Cross reference to Shirley S. Ho (2016) 'Communicating about Nuclear Energy and Climate Change', Oxford Research Encyclopaedia DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.440 Romsdahl et al (2017) found that between 2008 and 2010 there was a significant drop in attention to environmental protection issues among all the sampled British quality newspapers, although this was less evident in The Guardian. Aside from a spike in coverage in 2009 with Climategate and COP15 there was a marked decline in press coverage from 2008 until 2014, when the study concluded.…”

Corporations, Consumerism and Culpability: Sustainability in the British Press

“…Others have similarly argued that sustainability/sustainable development may be an "empty signifier" (Laclau 1996)a concept so widely used that it lacks meaning and clarity of purpose (Dryzek, 1997;Lélé, 1991;Sunderlin, 1995). Romsdahl et al's (2017) recent study of local government responses to climate change, for example, has shown how sustainability is reframed in order to make progress on specific policies.…”