International climate negotiations (exercise)

Scenario (Role play)

A consortium consisting of two lobbying groups (one Sweden/EU based and one India based) - which work towards increased ambitions in the UN climate change pledges and tighten the framework for implementation of aligned climate policies - has gotten the attention of the Swedish chief climate negotiator. The Swedish chief climate negotiator was pinpointed by the group since Sweden is the current Chairman country which makes him the acting chief negotiator of the European Union.

AIM

The consortium's goal is to impact the position and tactics of the Swedish/EU negotiator ahead of the upcoming COP negotiations to argue for stronger pledges and collaboration on climate policies to meet the current goals.

In a session which is conducted in a hybrid format that links the two lobbying groups, they plan to work to create a joint position of how to influence Swedish/EU climate negotiator and his position and tactics in the upcoming negotiations.

The opportunity came with short notice - so time is short and the two groups decided to spend half a day to formulate their joint strategy for this lobbying [which is what we will do on Thursday Feb 9].

The groups plan to work both in parallel and connected to each other using videoconferencing for in group and between group deliberations and negotiations.(more details later)

------------------------------------------

Note - On the 24th of February, you will actually meet Anders Turesson, the (former) Swedish/EU chief climate negotiator who will give a seminar and answer Q & A questions. On the 2nd of March you will meet him a second time: this is when you will act as representatives from our "lobbying consortium" and will get to try to convince him in line with the conclusions of the Feb 9 collaborative session between the two "lobbying groups".

Welcome to this lobbying/negotiations part of the course!

Behind the scenes of this role play framing, this international collaborative exercise will look at how to design a fair agreement on sharing the burdens of an international climate agreement. Who should do most abatement? Who should get to emit CO2* ahead?

(Note that CO2* or CO2 equivalents is a measure of all climate forcers (greenhouse gases, black carbon etc). As a simplification we will here call it CO2 but bare in mind that it is really a mix of emissions that affect the climate).

Main teachers Thomas and Erik.