UCL-Energy Seminar: 'The Hidden Hand of Climate Diplomacy' with Radoslav Dimitrov, European Union delegate to the United Nations negotiations on climate change

About the event:
The presentation assesses UN climate change negotiations from an insider’s perspective. It provides an update on political dynamics and outcomes of recent conferences. Two theoretical arguments will be advanced. First, global climate diplomacy has already succeeded in facilitating policy change without formal agreements. The conversations among governments help explain the worldwide proliferation of climate-friendly policies today that signal a global Green Shift. Second, persuasion has played an important role in world politics and arguments about the economics of climate policy have led to reconsideration of national interests. Negotiations can have a major impact on governance even without producing formal policy regimes. The importance of climate diplomacy is in spreading influential ideas that alter cost-benefit calculations and facilitate policy change at multiple levels.


About the speaker:
Radoslav Dimitrov serves on the European Union delegation at UNFCC negotiations. He is a professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and consultant on climate diplomacy to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. His academic research on climate politics, environmental regimes, norms and the science-policy connection appear in International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Global Environmental Politics, Review of Policy Research, the Journal of Environment and Development, his 2006 book Science and International Environmental Policy and in numerous academic handbooks.