Issue-linkages to Climate Change Measured through NGO Participation in the UNFCCC

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miquel Muñoz Cabré
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Civil Society Participation

NGOs comprise over half the cumulative number of delegates attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) for the 1995–2009 period. These NGOs represent a wide array of issues, including sustainable development, business, and higher education, to name just a few. Based on UNFCCC publicly available participation statistics, this article analyzes NGO participation from a quantitative issue-based perspective, and compares the results with the relevant conclusions drawn by the other contributors to this special issue. The findings of this analysis confirm informed expectations about issue-driven NGO participation. In particular, three main findings are that: (1) environment and conservation, academic, business, and energy NGOs dominate civil society participation in the UNFCCC; (2) UNFCCC constituencies do not adequately capture the range of issues addressed by observer NGOs; and (3) since 2007, NGO participation has sig-nificantly increased and diversified.

Institutional Control and Climate Change Activism at COP 21 in Paris

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon K. Orr
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Institutional Control ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
The City

The 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris faced two particular challenges: the growth of civil society participation in the negotiations, and significant security concerns following the terrorist attacks on the city two weeks prior to the start of the negotiations. This report reflects on the impacts of these two challenges through an overview of civil society participation at the COP, highlighting the implications for the accountability of the negotiations.

Negotiating the Paris Agreement

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
High Level

The 2015 Paris Agreement represents the culmination of years of intense negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Designed to curb climate change, it was negotiated by almost 200 countries who came to the table with different backgrounds, perceptions and interests. As such, the Agreement represents a triumph for multilateralism in a period otherwise characterized by nationalist turns. How did countries reach the historical agreement, and what were the driving forces behind it? This book paints a full picture by providing and analysing multifaceted insider accounts from high-level delegates who represented developed and developing countries, civil society, businesses, the French Presidency, and the UNFCCC Secretariat. In doing so, the book documents not only the negotiation of the Paris Agreement but also the dynamics and factors that shaped it. A better understanding of these dynamics and factors can guide future negotiations and help us solve global challenges.

scholarly journals Why the frustration?

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 84-103
Author(s):  
Sebastian Levi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Loss And Damage ◽  
The United Nations

Civil society organizations play an increasingly important role in global politics. However, during the last years, civil society has become frustrated from the negotiations in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This frustration reached a new quality when civil society organizations walked out in the middle of the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19) in 2013. Drawing from empirical data from the COP19 and the negotiations on Loss and Damage, this thesis seeks to explain the low level of influence which has lead to this frustration. It can be shown that neither civil society capabilities, nor changing state attitudes towards civil society can explain their contemporary low influence. Instead, this paper argues that the increasing financial and legal relevance of the negotiations substantially constrain civil society from exercising influence.

Umstrittene Expertise

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Controversial Nature

The current political debates about climate change or the coronavirus pandemic reveal the fundamental controversial nature of expertise in politics and society. The contributions in this volume analyse various facets, actors and dynamics of the current conflicts about knowledge and expertise. In addition to examining the contradictions of expertise in politics, the book discusses the political consequences of its controversial nature, the forms and extent of policy advice, expert conflicts in civil society and culture, and the global dimension of expertise. This special issue also contains a forum including reflections on the role of expertise during the coronavirus pandemic. The volume includes perspectives from sociology, political theory, political science and law.

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