From Transition to Sobriety: Metaphorical Framing of Climate Change in France

Abstract

This paper investigates the prominence and political reframing of metaphors in French climate policy discourse, with a focus on Emmanuel Macron’s promotion of his energy sobriety plan (sobriété énergétique) since 2022. While earlier French climate rhetoric often relied on well-established war and combat metaphors (Augé [2023]), Macron has introduced a distinct lexicon emphasising sobriety (sobriété). This term reframes climate action away from narratives of sacrifice and restriction toward metaphors of moderation, balance, and collective discipline, while simultaneously embedding ecological policy within the broader imaginaries of sovereignty and national resilience. Drawing on ecolinguistics (Stibbe [2021]) and Lakoff & Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory, the analysis explores how sobriété functions as a metaphorical extension from the moral domain (temperance, restraint) into the energy sector, where it connotes both necessity in times of crisis (energy shortages, war in Ukraine) and virtue in long-term ecological transition. The study examines presidential speeches, government communications, and official reports (2022–2024), highlighting the argumentative potential of these metaphors: they soften the perception of constraint by casting reduced consumption as ethical and civic, while legitimising state-led planning as pragmatic rather than coercive. At the same time, the paper discusses the possible ambivalence of such metaphorical framing, which may, in certain configurations, contribute to individualising responsibility for collective ecological challenges. Finally, the analysis situates this metaphor within a multilingual context, asking how metaphors like sobriété, which may lack direct English equivalents (Mallard, 2024), challenge the European circulation of climate terminology. By tracing the use of these metaphorical repertoires, the paper argues that Macron’s discourse exemplifies how political actors strategically reshape climate lexicon to reconcile ecological urgency with cultural values of modernity, sovereignty, and collective endurance.