Climate Change and Transboundary Waters: A Study of Discourse in the Mekong River Commission

This research paper analyzes a decade of official documents from the Mekong River Commission (MRC), finding that climate change discourse is framed as science-based and short-term. While the discourse has expanded to include justice, security, and development to attract donor support, the authors argue that actual actions remain limited to studies and project scoping rather than real adaptive measures in the Mekong River Basin.

• Climate change policy strategies within the Mekong River Commission (MRC) are framed as science-based actions, with a scale focused on human-dominated, regionally based, and short-term immediate temporal horizons.
• The discourse on climate change has expanded to include frames of security, development, integrated water resource management (IWRM), and justice. This shift aligns with global water governance trends and suggests strategic attempts by member states and the MRC to secure donor support.
• The authors argue that the MRC's actual climate change actions are limited to project scoping and the production of studies, rather than implementing real adaptive actions within the basin.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Climate Change and Transboundary Waters: A Study of Discourse in the Mekong River Commission. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/climate-change-and-transboundary-waters-a-study-of-discourse-in-the-mekong-river-commission/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Climate Change and Transboundary Waters: A Study of Discourse in the Mekong River Commission. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/climate-change-and-transboundary-waters-a-study-of-discourse-in-the-mekong-river-commission/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Climate Change and Transboundary Waters: A Study of Discourse in the Mekong River Commission |date=17 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/climate-change-and-transboundary-waters-a-study-of-discourse-in-the-mekong-river-commission/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025climate, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Climate Change and Transboundary Waters: A Study of Discourse in the Mekong River Commission}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/climate-change-and-transboundary-waters-a-study-of-discourse-in-the-mekong-river-commission/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }