ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that discourse can have very negative and limiting effects on public engagement with climate change and the extent to which public interests are reflected and addressed in the ways that climate change is approached. It discusses the way that climate change has been depoliticised and how a particular framing of climate change has come to dominate policy approaches and public discourses around climate change. The chapter describes that inaccurate and idealised vision of science is both unrealistic and harmful to public relationships with science. It discusses the way that energy policies – particularly relating to the development of renewable energy – have been legitimised by reference to public interest arguments regarding climate change mitigation. The chapter considers how dialogic conceptions of the public interest might challenge dominant approaches to climate change and offers an alternative approach to understanding and addressing public interests relating to climate change.
