Real Commitment or Apparent Volition? The Representation and Evaluation of Climate Change in Food-Beverage Corporate Discourse across the Global North-South Divide

In recent decades, climate change has emerged as a pivotal concern for corporations, which have been acknowledged among the main contributors to environmental degradation. In this regard, stringent climate regulations and rising societal expectations compelled companies to align their practices with climate-related goals, aiming to mitigate their impact on climate change (Breeze, 2013; Weingart et al., 2000). The interplay between corporations and climate change is two-fold. First, corporations significantly contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along with the depletion of natural resources. Yet, companies argue to have the possibility to reduce their environmental impact by implementing environmentally sustainable practices in their core activities (Livesey and Graham, 2007). In particular, food and beverage companies play a pivotal role in confronting climate change challenges. Moreover, they participate in the international debate over the climate crisis concerning commitments to reduce carbon emissions and to find solutions to mitigate fossil fuel consumption. This has transformed corporate communication into a valuable tool for demonstrating a proactive attitude towards climate change to preserve a positive public image and influence the perception of corporate environmental responsibility. Corporate discourse is central to these efforts, serving as the means through which interpersonal and organisational objectives are pursued, shaped and realised within many discursive interactions (Jaworska, 2020). Climate change communication in corporate discourse entails a multitude of complexities concerning the scope, modalities, channels, and overall efficacy. Such complexities are shaped by various contextual factors that significantly influence communication processes. The present study draws on the linguistic and emotional turn in corporate studies (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2000; Orts Llopis, 2022) and is based on theories grounded in Critical Discourse Studies. More specifically, it investigates the representation and evaluation of climate change in corporate discourse of food and beverage companies operating in the Global North and the Global South. In addressing existing research gaps in the literature, the work contributes to a deeper understanding of how food and beverage corporations influence public perceptions and communicate their commitment to climate action and environmental sustainability through discourse. The study offers an in-depth analysis of climate-related corporate discourse by integrating Corpus Linguistics tools and methods with Critical Discourse Analysis and the Appraisal Framework. The research further investigates the strategic use of emotional language within climate-related corporate discourse. Moreover, it provides a comparative diatopic analysis of corporate discourse to shed light on the convergences and divergences in the representation and evaluation of climate change among companies operating in the Global North and Global South. The study analyses CSR reports, CEO letters and web pages addressing climate change collected in a specifically compiled specialised corpus (referred to as the CRClim corpus). The CRClim corpus comprises data collected from 44 companies for an average of 748 texts and 7,272,328 words with regard to the timespan 2015-2022. Furthermore, the dissertation also analyses a subset, the CRClim annotated Corpus, which was manually annotated using the UAM Corpus Tool, enabling a qualitative analysis of ATTITUDE and MODALITY. Findings are discussed in three distinct sections, each characterised by its own research objectives, research questions, methods, and methodological approaches. The dissertation aims to clarify the complex nature of climate-related corporate discourse in the food and beverage industry. It unravels how such discourse serves two main purposes: managing public perception and balancing the tensions between environmental accountability, economic imperatives, and climate regulations. By examining climate-related corporate discourse, the study seeks to offer a deeper understanding of whether food and beverage corporations are genuinely committed to climate action or if their efforts aim to safeguard their profitability and economic interests in the era of climate change.