Climate Change Communication by Development NGOs : An Analysis of The Potential Role of Marketization

Abstract: This thesis sets out to answer how development NGOs frame climate change in the wake of the Agenda 2030 and assess what factors might be at play in shaping the universal framing of climate change as emphasized in the SDGs. While there are several factors which might influence the framing of climate change used by NGOs, this study focuses on marketization as a potential explanatory factor. By drawing on theories of marketization, organizational uncertainties and climate justice, this thesis analyzes how the two selected cases, ActionAid and Diakonia, discursively frame and communicate about the issue of climate change in material on their websites. The findings suggest that there exists a relationship between the organization’s levels of marketization and the framing of climate change. Through discourse analysis, the findings of this study point to how a lower level of marketization seems to correspond with a larger incorporation of ‘climate justice discourse’ and the adoption of the universal framing of climate change as emphasized in the SDGs. On the other hand, a higher level of marketization seems to correspond with a more traditional framing of development aid and climate change, with an emphasis on climate actions mainly targeted towards the Global South. However, as this is a comparative case-study and the first to research this specific topic, future studies are needed in order to produce more generalizable and robust results.