Climate Action Commitments Communicated: A Comparison of Unilever’s Corporate Climate Policies and Public Messaging in the Global North and the Global South
This study aims to explore the communication of Unilever’s climate action strategies in corporate policies and public messaging, focusing on news releases from South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom and Ireland (UKI). It focused on inclusive development (ID), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and greenwashing in relation to these climate actions and in relation to Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground (LFFU). There has been little research on corporate climate action communication and whether there are regional differences in communicating these actions between the Global North and the Global South. Additionally, little academic attention is paid to the relation of corporate climate communication and LFFU, even though consumer goods companies contribute to greenhouse gas emissions significantly. Data was gathered from Unilever SA and UKI websites’ from 2016 to 2023, as well as the corporate Climate Transition Action Plan (2021). A deductive framing analysis was performed initially, followed by an inductive framing analysis. Findings showed that communication emphasized the importance of responsibility, setting targets, emissions reduction, the collaboration with partners, stakeholder engagement and transparency. The study provides valuable insights into Unilever’s climate communication in corporate policies and public messaging and highlights the differences between the Global North and Global South and their link to LFFU. While Unilever represents itself as acting responsibly and sustainably, data showed that communication is focused on presenting goals and targets rather than concrete courses of action.