This paper investigates the emergence of the EU and China as normative actors in climate change governance. It contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how emerging and new actors aim to achieve acceptance, recognition and influence in the still emerging global governance framework. It employs discourse analysis to trace the positioning of the EU and China as normative powers in the run-up to and during the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.
The normative power concept posits that the EU is a unique actor in world politics as its external relations are influenced by a set of normative principles and shared beliefs. However, normative power is hardly unique to the EU. China too aims to assert itself as a ‘different kind of actor’. Normative power and actorness in general are relational and intersubjective, depending on context and recognition. Recognition can be achieved through legitimisation and differentiation. The principles and actions of normative powers need to be perceived by others as legitimate, going beyond narrow self-interest. Differentiation implies the construction of and careful delineation from others to re-enforce the visibility and recognition of the ‘self’ in a particular context.
The EU, China and climate change negotiations offer the perfect setting to analyse the discursive framing of normative power. Climate change is an urgent and immediate issue and the EU and China are very active players in climate change negotiations. Both can also be regarded as emerging powers in the construction of global governance, and both can be seen to employ a positioning discourse to frame themselves as normative powers in climate change negotiations. This perspective stretches the idea of normative power beyond Europe and adds and additional dimension to climate change negotiations.
