Fragmentation in the climate change negotiations
Résumé
This chapter takes stock of the growing number of country coalitions active in the climate change negotiations. We start by characterising coalitions on the basis of their geographic and thematic scope, the size of their membership, and their level of formality. Based on these characteristics, we identify three clusters: regional; global climate-specific; and global generic coalitions. When looking at coalition activity over time, we see that global climate-specific coalitions in particular have emerged in recent years, and that once coalitions are created, they tend to persist. As a result, most developing countries belong to several coalitions. We posit two possible and contrasting implications of such overlapping coalition memberships: coalitions may mutually support each other as common members may help to build bridges across them; and/or multiple coalition memberships may create logistical challenges for smaller parties and lead to tensions in the case of divergent coalition positions. Further research is needed to shed light on these potential implications.