Negotiation Article Review

Negotiation is a dialogue involving two or more parties whose goal is to reach a
consensus on an issue or issues where they have differences. Negotiations occur at different
levels. The levels include individual, organizational, and national. The success or failure of
negotiations depends on multiple factors. They include the significance or seriousness of the
differences of the negotiating parties, the personal relationship of the individuals engaged in
the negotiations, and the relative bargaining power of the each of the parties involved in the
negotiations. The number of participants in the negotiations and the environmental context in
which the negotiations take place also affect the outcome of the negotiations. For instance,
negotiations involving many participants with varied interests in an international setting are
more difficult to conduct than negotiations involving fewer participants in domestic settings.
This paper analyzes an article covering negotiations that took place in an international setting
and involving close to two hundred parties. The article is titled Nations Approve Landmark
Climate Accord in Paris and was written by Coral Davenport and published in the New York
Times on December 12, 2015.

Summary of the Article

Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in Paris by Coral Davenport is an article
about the negotiations among 195 nations that took place in Paris in 2015 with the goal of
reaching an agreement on cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. Even though the agreement was
reached during the Paris Climate Change talks, negotiations that led to the agreement had
been nine years in the making. The goal of the negotiations was to have nations reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions in a way that would prevent global temperatures from rising by
more than two degrees centigrade (Davenport, 2015). It is feared that if the temperatures rise
by more than two degrees there would be major global devastations. Similar attempts at

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reaching such a deal had failed during the Copenhagen Climate Change talks in 2009. Even
though negotiations at Paris Climate Change talks led to an agreement, the agreement was not
satisfactory to all the parties that were involved in the talks. First, the level of greenhouse gas
cuts that the participating nations agreed to have was not enough to prevent global warming
from rising by more than two degrees Celsius. Secondly, the commitments that the nations
made were not legally binding. Third, wealthy countries were not legally compelled to
provide poor nations with $100 billion (Davenport, 2015). Despite these shortcomings, the
Paris Climate Accord was hailed by leaders as a major breakthrough in global efforts to
combat climate change.

Implications of Globalization on the Negotiations

Globalization is interaction as well as integration of businesses, individuals, and
governments across the globe. Globalization has developed as a result of advances that have
been made in communication and transport technologies which have significantly eased
interactions among people and organizations from different parts of the world. This increase
in global interactions has led to, among other thing, diffusion of ideas. For instance, thanks to
globalization, the need to control global warming is not just a national issue. Through
seminars attended by personalities from different countries, works of scientists from different
countries working together, and media entities with a global reach sharing ideas on global
warming to a global audience, a consensus has developed which holds that human activities
are responsible for climate change and governments need to take action to prevent humanity
from enduring the worst effects of climate change. Thus, globalization has made easier for
decision makers to develop consensus on the issue of global warming.
Globalization has also led to increased cooperation among nations in tackling various
challenges. Prior to globalization, each nation dealt with its own challenges. However, with

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globalization, nations increasingly coordinate their efforts in dealing with shared problems.
With regard to negotiations leading to the Paris Climate Change Accord, the author notes two
breakthroughs that led to the negotiations becoming a success. First, it was increasing
cooperation between the US and China on the issue of cuts to greenhouse gases. In 2014, the
leaders of US and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, agreed to cut their
domestic greenhouse gases (Davenport, 2015). The US President considered cutting
greenhouse gases a key element of his legacy. Therefore, he established the Environmental
Protection Agency to spearhead the nation’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
(Davenport, 2015). As for China, the country’s leader was keen to reduce air pollution which
had become a major domestic issue. The two countries’ joint efforts to tackle climate change
made it easy to convince other countries to follow suit.
The second breakthrough convincing rich countries such as the USA and Western
European countries to accept classification of China and India as developing countries and,
therefore, to have them set lower targets of greenhouse gases cuts. The fact that the deal
required the cooperation of both wealthy and developing countries is another to the strength
of globalization and how it impacted the negotiations that led to the Paris Climate Change
Agreement (Davenport, 2015).
The contentious issues during the negotiations were also a result of globalization. The
main issue was financial assistance that rich countries were willing to provide to poor
countries. Poor countries argue that they emit a small percentage of greenhouse gases but
face most of the effects resulting from greenhouse emissions, such as increasing sea levels
(Perveen, 2019). The fact that greenhouse gases produced by developed countries had most
impact on developing countries which did not produce much greenhouse gases shows how
globalization has led to sharing of challenges.

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Implications of Technology on the Negotiations

Technology played a major role in the negotiations that led to the Paris Climate
Change Agreement. In particular, technology had a major impact in the way communication
took place during the talks (Mautner-Markhof, 2019). Through the use of communication
tools such as emails, delegates and leaders at the conference easily shared important
documents during the conference. Additionally, technology enabled translation of the
conference’s proceedings into multiple languages to enhance understanding of what was
being discussed. Video conferencing technology was also used to facilitate communication
among delegates that were located in different places. Thus, technology significantly
enhanced the quality of communication that took place during the conference.

Conclusion

It is no accident that negotiations that led to the Paris Climate Accord took U.N
diplomats more than nine years. It is certainly difficult to bring together more than 190
countries with widely varied interests and have them reach a consensus on an important issue
such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Even though the commitments were not legally
binding, they constituted an important step towards combatting the problem of global
warming. As this paper has shown, the success of the talks did not just reflect the negotiation
skills of the diplomats who did most of the heavy lifting during the negotiations but also of
factors such as globalization and technology. Globalization helped to diffuse the idea of the
dangers of global warming and the need to act urgently before it is too late. Technology, on
the other hand, enhanced communication during the talks thus increasing their chances of
success.

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References

Davenport, C. (2015, December 12). Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in Paris.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/europe/climate-
change-accord-paris.amp.html
Mautner-Markhof, F. (2019). Processes of international negotiations. Routledge.
Parveen, R. (2019). Globalization, Climate Change and Global Environmental
Law. International Journal of Environmental Science, 4.