Climate Change in World Leaders’ Political Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study

Abstract

Climate change has become a trending topic and a worldwide issue. However, knowledge about climate change and its serious results has proven to be difficult to transfer to the public. This study aims at examining two political speeches delivered by world leaders in the Conference of the Parties assembly. The study investigates the discursive strategies used to show how world leaders address climate change, persuade the audience and call for action. The study is descriptive qualitative in nature. The analysis adopts Van Dijk’s (1998) framework with Fairclough's (1995) critical discourse analysis approach. It is found that the shorter speech contains a lesser amount of discursive strategies. In addition, in order to persuade the audience, the two leaders relied extensively on several strategies namely self-presentations, modality, repetition and evidentiality. The findings show that as the two leaders represent developed and developing countries, there is linguistic variation in vocabulary, style, and policy emphasis. The variation between the speakers reveals notable similarities and differences in tackling climate change and facing its impacts.