The Terminological Politics of Climate Change Authors Jordi Jaria-Manzano Universitat Rovira i Virgili https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1360-9301 DOI: 10.2436/20.2503.01.227 Abstract This article reviews the terminological evolution of the phenomenon known as climate change. Since the 19th century, researchers like Eunice Foote and Svante Arrhenius proposed the greenhouse effect, while in the 20th century terms such as «global warming» and «climate change» became scientifically established. With the creation of the IPCC (1988) and the UNFCCC (1992), «climate change» became a legal and political term. The article highlights the introduction of «climate emergency» (2016) to emphasize the urgency to act, driven by social movements and international organizations. It also analyzes how terminology can reflect ideological positions and shape public debate. Finally, it addresses mitigation and adaptation responses and the concept of «climate justice» for distributing responsibilities and costs, especially in the context of recent international litigation. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Author Biography Jordi Jaria-Manzano, Universitat Rovira i Virgili Jordi Jaria-Manzano és professor agregat Serra Húnter de Dret Constitucional i Ambiental a la Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), on coordina el doctorat en Dret. És investigador al Centre d’Estudis de Dret Ambiental de Tarragona. Doctor en Dret per la URV (2004), és també llicenciat en Dret i en Filosofia i Ciències de l’Educació per la UB. La seva recerca se centra en dret ambiental, justícia ambiental, constitucionalisme global, antropocè, distribució del poder i pluralisme jurídic. Ha dirigit projectes sobre transició energètica i sostenibilitat digital o hi ha participat. Dirigeix la Revista d’Estudis Autonòmics i Federals. Downloads PDF (Català) Published 2025-06-29 How to Cite Jaria-Manzano, J. (2025). The Terminological Politics of Climate Change . Terminàlia, 1(31), 66–68. Retrieved from https://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/Terminalia/article/view/155199 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue No. 31: June 2025 Section Climate transition and terminology License Authors registered on the OJS platform must read the copyright assignment terms and fill in the corresponding acceptance box.The intellectual property of articles belongs to the respective authors.On submitting articles for publication to the journal Terminàlia, authors accept the following terms:Authors assign to SCATERM (a subsidiary of Institut d'Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Terminàlia.Authors answer to SCATERM for the authorship and originality of submitted articles.Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles.SCATERM declines all liability for the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors.The contents published in the journal, unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) 3.0 Spain licence, the complete text of which may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Consequently, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate the work, provided that its authorship and the body publishing it are acknowledged, and that no commercial use and no derivative works are made of it.The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of the published articles.
