The Organization of Global Negotiations

3

The Challenges of the ClimateChange Negotiations

It was the mother of all negotiations¹

Introduction

This chapter provides an introduction to the climate change negotiations, drawing on the framework for understanding global negotiations set out in Chapter 2. It begins by outlining the nature of the climate change problem and the characteristics that render it particularly difficult to address. The chapter then turns to the climate change negotiations themselves. Although the focus of this book is on the period 1995 to 2001, incorporating the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and the post-Kyoto process that followed, the chapter includes a comprehensive overview of the negotiation process from its inception to the present day. We then explore the ...