Local climate change discourse: Discursive effects of the funding call “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”

This paper presents a pilot study for a project that aims to investigate the local effects of (inter)national policy discourse on Net-Zero on local policy discourses in Germany and the UK. Broad goals on climate change are largely set at international and national level, whereas the tangible action required to tackle the challenge of climate change is essentially implemented at a local and individual level. We therefore seek to understand how this gap is bridged by actors in local politics by addressing four key questions: 1. How do actors in local politics employ language to shape debates and develop policy on achieving Net-Zero? 2. To what extent do local political discourses of Net-Zero depend on the relationship between national and sub-national layers of politics? 3. How are climate change discourses shaped in the work of local councils and local politics, and how are national political discourses on the target of Net-Zero altered when entering local debates? The project investigates how (inte)national political discourses on climate change are adapted at local government level in different political systems by combining methods of linguistic ethnography and critical discourse analysis. We analyse textual trajectories of climate change discourses between national and local government in Germany and the UK to gain an understanding of how these discourses are adapted locally. The paper will report on the pilot phase of the project, analysing a data set from a council debate in Germany about the EU programme “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” and the textual and discursive networks created by that debate. The analysis is based on recordings from the council and committee debates, the different versions of motions, as well as the broader textual networks produced by a debate the did not result in this city taking part in the programme but initiated a wider debate within the urban society.