The Participation of Developing Countries in the United Nations Climate Negotiation: the case of G77

Since 1980s, the problem of climate change has been recognized as a politic issue. Because the adverse effect is worldwide, the world needs international multilateral negotiation to deal with the impact of climate change. Since the Earth Summit in 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) has become the main arena for coping with climate issues. Among the negotiators, developing countries are the majority of negotiators. They’re also most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Therefore, it is important for them to participate in the climate negotiation. Furthermore, the Group of 77(G77) is the main negotiating group of developing countries. It’s also recognized by the United Nations as one of the main negotiating group. In conclusion, this project is aimed to find out how G77 had participated in the UN climate negotiation from 1995 to 2009, hoping to analysis why developing countries want to cooperate through G77, what their negotiation strategies are, and what the factors influencing strategies are.
Through the Literature Review, the project finds out three main factors to influence the participation of G77, including the different positions between the subgroups of G77, the climate discourse of G77, and the international social factors. First, G77 is characterized by heterogeneity. There are different positions between the members of G77. However, the developing countries still support common principles which are “the principle of sustainable development” and “the principle of equity.” These are also the foundation of G77’s climate discourse. After reading the submissions of G77 from 1995 to 2009, the project finds out the issues that G77 pay most attention to, such as mitigation, adaptation, fund, technology transfer, capacity building and the compliance mechanism…etc.. When analyzing the common position of G77, the project finds out the principles mentioned above are also tightly related to their position. Furthermore, the international social factors may also influence the negotiation strategies of G77, including the material factors, the changing policy of the other countries, the appearance of new information, and the occurrence of economic events. Finally, there are three main negotiation strategies for G77 to participate in the UN climate negotiation: the maintenance of the Convention and Kyoto Protocol, the consolidation of the legitimacy of their discourse, and the fulfillment of their discourse.