The UN Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the Spanish Government, has published the second edition of its manual for Ibero-American climate change negotiators, ‘Manual del Negociador de Cambio Climático Iberoamericano,' which provides up-to-date information on a number of essential themes for Spanish-speaking negotiators from Latin America and the Caribbean.
10 October 2014: The UN Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the Spanish Government, has published the second edition of its manual for Ibero-American climate change negotiators, titled‘Manual del Negociador de Cambio Climático Iberoamericano,’ which provides up-to-date information on a number of essential issues for Spanish-speaking negotiators from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The manual is intended to serve as a guide for climate change negotiators from countries of the Ibero-America, which according to UNDP are at different stages of preparedness for negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with some already having hosted meetings of its Conference of the Parties (COP). In addition, the region is characterized by great variation in the size and capacity of the delegations, and participation in country groupings.
The manual covers eight thematic areas: climate change impacts, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the region; evolution of the negotiations under the UNFCCC; institutions and mechanisms established under the Convention; key themes in the negotiations; key actors, including parties, observers, the media and negotiating groups; the negotiating process; negotiating positions and strategies; and parallel processes and time between UNFCCC sessions.
The sections on process, and positions and strategies aim to support Ibero-American negotiators in achieving their countries’ objectives by providing practical advice and examples of negotiating strategies. Among other things, the manual presents guiding questions for formulating a country position, based on the country’s understanding of the international negotiating process on climate change and what it hopes to achieve from the negotiations. It also gives advice on communicating a country position, text-based negotiations and the decision-making process in the negotiations.
Keeping in mind the often limited time of negotiators, the 120-page guide also gives suggestions on which sections to focus on in particular. [UNDP Publication Website (in Spanish)] [Publication: Manual del Negociador de Cambio Climático Iberoamericano]