Negotiating Climate Change

Abstract

It is troubling that so little negotiation and conflict management knowledge exists in a climate change context, as climate change is the largest and most complicated interdependent situation ever confronted on planet earth. This theoretical paper reviews the sparse extant literature and then provides a brief overview to the science of climate change public policy. This review establishes a foundation for examining negotiation and conflict management research questions that emanate from current and future climate change negotiations. The 2009 Copenhagen Accord receives special consideration in this regard. This paper demonstrates how the negotiation and conflict management field can make important contributions to the study of interdependency in a climate change context.