The Organization of Global Negotiations

13

The Political and the Technical: Ministerial Input

The start of the ministerial segment … the moment at which the Great and the Jet-lagged join the Wise and the Weary (GLOBE, 1998).

Introduction

This chapter explores arrangements for the participation of ministers in the climate change negotiations. A distinction is typically made in both the literature (e.g. see Wettestad, 1999) and policy arena between administrative-level civil servants – termed officials – and higher-level political participants representing the government in office, known as ministers¹ in most countries. These different actors are viewed as having contrasting strengths. While ‘bureaucrats [officials] often master the complex technological and political details … ministers ...