Climate of Consensus: Managing Decision Making in the UN Climate Change Negotiations

Abstract

The United Nations climate change negotiations have been constantly hampered by procedural disputes and unclear decision making. This article explores ideas for reforming the decision making of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the importance of COP decisions. It argues that scholars have tended to overlook the importance of COP decisions in global climate governance as a whole, on the one hand, and the weak practices of the COP's decision-making process, on the other. The article underscores that while majority voting is not politically viable – although voting on a limited set of issues is potentially useful – decision making can be significantly improved by enhancing the current practices of consensus building. The article calls for the strategic leadership role of the COP Presidency to be recognized and its best practices institutionalized. The primary goal of this article is to contribute to the wider ongoing debate on the possibilities and limitations of the regime established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.