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.
Loss and Damage and the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
