Lost in (Just) Transition? The Herculean Task of ‘leaving no-one behind’ in European Climate Adaptation Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the European North-South Divide

Abstract: In an era of climate emergency, considerations of justice are increasingly gaining traction. The unequal exposure to climate vulnerabilities across the European landscape has created a North-South gap in adaptation, which is examined through the critical cases of Sweden and Greece. Drawing upon Manners’ (2002) Normative Power Approach to climate justice, the research speculates the EU’s promotion of just transitions that underpin its policymaking across the dimensions of distributional, procedural, and recognition justice. Climate adaptation promotion within the Union is evaluated through the European Green Deal (2019), the Adaptation Strategy (2021), the European Pillar of Social Rights (2021) combined with the Swedish and Greek National Adaptation Strategies. The investigation of injustices is executed through the methodological lens of Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal normative ambiguities between the EU’s policy ambition and its adaptation policy implementation due to the failure to comprehensively address justice considerations within its strategic documents. Hence, the Union’s policy discourse is ineffective in delivering a normative policy response at the supranational and member state level, as illustrated through the presence of injustices in the European North-South divide. Research on the EU’s adaptation discourse underlines the need for mainstreaming assessment indicators to deliver policy justice