Climate change communication on the websites of Flemish political parties

The data in this repository offers a sample of online climate change communication by political parties in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The dataset consists of the party positions ("standpunten" in Dutch) that the seven main political parties in Flanders posted on their websites, more specifically those that were indexed by the parties as related to the climate, climate change and/or the environment. The seven parties included in this dataset are those that are represented, at the time of the data collection, in the Flemish parliament. These are: N-VA (New-Flemish Alliance), Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), CD&V (Christian Democratic & Flemish), Open VLD (Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats), Vooruit (Forward), Groen (Green), and PVDA (Labour Party of Belgium). The choice to include only those data that were explicitly indicated by the political parties as pertaining to climate change and/or the environment was deliberate, as it allows for a targeted examination of how political parties communicate about climate-related and environmental issues and possible solutions. It also means that the topics covered are more expansive for some parties than for others. For instance, while the green party ‘Groen’ takes a comprehensive view of climate-related policies (which are presented as also including energy, mobility, food and agriculture, and sustainable economy), the regionalist party ‘N-VA’ has opted for a more diversified approach, with environmental and climate-related policies presented as a separate category from energy, mobility, agriculture, etc. Despite its limitations, this procedure ensured that the data of political climate change communication is, indeed, explicitly understood by the parties themselves as relating to climate change.

Publication year:2024

Accessibility:open

Publisher:KU Leuven RDR

License:CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Format:pdf, txt

Keywords: Flanders, Belgium, climate change communication, climate change policy, online political communication