Discursive Construction of the Climate-Poverty Relationship in the World Bank’s CCDRs

Climate change and poverty represent intertwined challenges disproportionately affecting Least Developed Countries (LDCs), yet how global institutions discursively construct their nexus to legitimize policy remains underexplored. Drawing on critical policy discourse analysis (CPDA), this study investigates how the World Bank Group frames the climate change-poverty relationship in its Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) for LDCs, and the legitimation strategies embedded in these constructions. Findings reveal two dominant discursive frames: the vulnerability frame, which constructs poor groups as passive victims of climate impacts and deploys moral evaluation to legitimize adaptation policies; and the causality frame, which positions climate change as an active driver of poverty and uses scientific rationalization to legitimize mitigation policies. These frames collectively shape a hybrid policy agenda that balances ethically imperatives with technocratic efficiency, reflecting the Bank’s attempt to legitimize its influence on LDC climate-development policies. This research contributes to understanding discourse in global climate governance, equipping stakeholders to critically engage with international policy advice and fostering more context-sensitive strategies for LDCs.