Due to institutional path dependencies - that is, uncoordinated mainstreaming of adaptive and mitigative strategies in existing and new sectoral policies - the gap between the adaptation and mitigation discourses has widened even more [17].
Moreover, in local climate change policy, there seem to be two discourses that have served to frame the adaptation and mitigation discourses: (a) the 'energy' discourse, shared with local civil society and energy policy domain stakeholders (climate change mitigation), and (b) the 'water' discourse, shared with water sector stakeholders.
The present study investigates the use of mitigation and indirectness in argument discourse produced in an institutional setting by Spanish learners (L2).
All in all, the continued dichotomy has 'carbonized' the climate change discourse from the mitigation perspective to the detriment of salient issues of direct climatic effects of land cover (van Noordwijk et al. 2014) and land use that transcend the mitigation and adaptation divide.
This paper discusses the discourses on climate change adaptation and mitigation that are currently at the forefront in the Congo Basin.
Intriguingly, while adaptation responses tend to stress the rights of individuals, we also find discourses of collective rights emerging in relation to mitigation.
Finding land use strategies that merge land-based climate change mitigation measures and adaptation strategies is still an open issue in climate discourse.
Theoretically, we combine the agency-focus of frame analysis and discourse theory to analyze how different agents hold frames on climate change adaptation and mitigation policies in the region.
Three discourses were found on policy response to climate change in the forest sector: mitigation policy only, separated policy on adaptation and mitigation, and an integrated policy on adaptation and mitigation.
Differences in approach, however, are in large part due to institutional inertia and the framing of policy debates: mitigation is viewed as an 'energy' issue whereas adaptation is viewed as a 'water' issue (two discourses).
