The Organization of Global Negotiations

10

Complementary Forums: Workshops,Roundtables and Others

Occasions like that help grease the negotiating cycle (interview).

Introduction

The negotiating arenas discussed in Chapter 9 are complemented in the climate change regime by forums such as workshops and roundtables, which are aimed at gathering information and exchanging views, rather than political bargaining. Such complementary forums are explicitly highly informal, with no set rules governing their structure or conduct of business. Indeed, because complementary forums lack the mandate – indeed, are forbidden – to engage in bargaining, they are less (but not un-) controversial, and therefore the presiding officers and secretariat have even more leeway in their organization. This short ...