Discourse on Climate Change in Corporate Reporting: The Case of Vedanta Resources

Abstract

There is a growing number of research publications on corporate discourse, focusing on how natural resource
corporations frame their discourses in corporate reports, including their respective discourses on corporate responsibility [1], environmental sustainability, and climate change [2; 306]. Presently, however, little research
is available on the discourse on climate change in corporate reports by Vedanta Resources (henceforth —
VR), a natural resources corporation that operates in the countries of the so-called Global South, in particular,
in India, South Africa, Liberia, and Namibia [3]. Seeking to bridge the research gap, the article introduces a
qualitative study that examines VR’s climate change discourse in its corporate reports. Specifically, the study
aimed to establish how VR framed its climate change discourse in its corporate reports associated with the issue of climate change. To that end, a corpus of VR’s corporate reports on the issue climate change was collected. The corpus involved VR’s corporate reports published within the time frame from 2019 to 2024. The
corpus was analysed qualitatively in line with the framing methodology developed by Entman [4]. The results
of the qualitative investigation of the corpus revealed that VR framed its corporate discourse on the issue of
climate change via such frames as, for instance, Commitment, Governance, Mitigation, Optimisation, Recognition, Responsibility, and Risk. The findings were illustrated in detail in the article. Furthermore, the findings were discussed from the vantage point of the existing body of published research on the framing of climate change by corporate actors. In light of the literature, the discussion showed that VR’s framing of climate
change seemed to be aligned with the respective framings of climate change by the major international corporate actors. The article concluded with an outline of the findings and their relevance to corporate discourse
and communication associated with the issue of climate change