International environmental negotiation: Insights for practice

Environment and development issues are beginning to receive the attention they deserve from a global audience that, for the most part, is now willing to confront these problems directly. The resolution of many of these issues is acknowledged to be a matter of global survival. This Executive Report highlights some of the results of a two-year analysis of international environmental negotiations conducted by a distinguished team of diplomats, international civil servants, and scholars, and sponsored by IIASA’s Processes of International Negotiation Project. In-depth analyses of eight major negotiations were performed-including talks on ozone depletion, global warming, the transport of hazardous materials, acid rain, sea pollution, inland water pollution, desertification, biological diversity, and nuclear pollution-and lessons were drawn for negotiators and diplomats, international organizations, third-party mediators, and researchers. Excerpts from that analysis are included in this Executive Report. A complete description of the study and its findings are published in a new IIASA book International Environmental Negotiaton, edited by Gunnar Sjoestedt and issued by Sage Publications.