Legally robust, politically fragile? The discursive institutional dilution of Conservative climate discourse in UK net zero politics (2010–2024)

The Conservative Party governed the UK during 2010-2024; a period which included several flagship climate actions as well as rollbacks under austerity. To date, however, limited attention has been paid to how discourses and institutions co-evolve, and how narrative strategies shape the meaning and durability of legal commitments. This article examines the evolution of UK climate governance from 2010 to 2024 by introducing a new conceptual process of Discursive Institutional Dilution (DID). DID conceptualises institutional change as a cumulative process operating through shifts in political meaning rather than formal rule alteration The analysis identifies overlapping discursive configurations characterised by tensions between leadership, affordability, sovereignty, and pragmatism. From these patterns, four mechanisms of DID are derived inductively: fragmentation, rhetorical neglect, orphaning, and antagonistic reframing. The analysis situates these shifts within the crises of Brexit, COVID-19, and the Ukraine war, and examines the temporary ‘thickening’ of discourse during the Fridays for Future (FFF) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) movements. The findings show that climate institutions endure not through law alone but through meaning. Sustaining Net Zero therefore requires discursive renewal – embedding fairness, prosperity, and intergenerational justice at the core of policy narrative to resist populist reframing and ideological decay.