Understanding climate change negotiations: an International Relations perspective

Abstract

The annual Conference of Parties (COP) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place since the establishment of the Berlin Mandate in 1995. Since then the on-going climate change negotiations have produced little progress in preventing the ultimate objective of the Framework Convention that is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Mainly responsible are three overarching conflicts, which have overshadowed all effort for an effective agreement so far. While the first and second conflict is within the developing and within the developed countries, the third conflict is between developing and developed countries. The latter conflict debates the question of how much and by whom emissions should be reduced in the future. The discipline of international relations provides two theoretical perspectives to predict the success of this year´s climate change negotiations. Whereas Realism perceives power to be the main reference for explaining international cooperation, constructivism puts the recognition of material as well as ideational factors in the centre of observation. If applied on the different negotiation parties, the realist perspective provides a far more pessimistic outlook for a successful agreement than constructivism.