Browsing by Author "Ahola, Ansa"

Climate policy is contentious by nature bringing forth global environmental concerns, challenging the economic structures, and emphasizing the role of humans in anthropogenic climate change. In Europe, at national levels of governance, right-wing populist and nationalist actors have been identified as climate hostile articulating skepticism of the overall issue, how it is governed, and how it impacts the people. With the rise of populism in Europe right-wing populist actors are organizing in the European Parliament (EP) where the similarities and differences in climate hostility come to play in the transnational decision-making forum. The right-wing populist and nationalist parties from the Member States of the Union are represented on a transnational level in the European Parliament by Members of Parliament in a political group called Identity and Democracy. This thesis deploys the method of post-foundational discourse analysis to analyze how the political group of Identity and Democracy uses the elements of right-wing populism in the climate policy discourse at the European Parliament. A distinct medium of communication by the political group is plenary booklets, which will be used as material in the analysis. The second aim of the research is to use the chosen method to assess the impact of the political group in the climate policy discourse. The scope of the thesis and the angle of approaching climate hostility through the political groups of the EP set the research apart from previous research. The key research outcomes show how anti-elitism, people’s sovereignty, and skepticism create patterns that consist of counter-hegemonic articulations aiming to reshape the meaning of Eurocentric climate policies. This formulates the climate policy stance of the political group. This stance is limited to only criticizing the climate action of the EU and does not offer any substantial contribution to the policy debate. However, it does manage to create an antagonism in the discourse where the climate action is juxtaposed as harmful to people and industries in the EU Member States. In conclusion, this study sheds light on how Identity and Democracy as a right-wing populist group actively shape the discourse on climate policy in the European Parliament with counter-hegemonic acts aiming to reshape the meaning of Eurocentric green growth. This thesis successfully addressed two research questions that pertain to how a single political group can influence climate policy discourse.