Foreword
Dear reader,
The second half of 2021 has been a busy one for CEMUNE. The first of our three major milestones was the launch of our book “Negotiating the Paris Agreement: The Insider Stories”. It takes a look at how almost 200 countries came together to successfully negotiate an agreement with the potential to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. We held an official book launch event hosted by the UNFCCC at COP26 in Glasgow, where parties eventually did come to an agreement that kept “1.5 alive”.
Just prior to COP26, we released our podcast episode with Laurent Fabius, who talked to us about the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC COP26, and negotiation process. Lastly, we relaunched our website in October, which was achieved in partnership with Ernst & Young.
As always, you are welcome to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you want to learn more or support us, please reach out to us at info@cemune.org
Best wishes over the holiday season and all the best for 2022,
Kai and Magnus
Dr. Kai MonheimDirector and Managing Partner
Dr. Magnus LundgrenDeputy Director and Managing PartnerRELEASE OF “NEGOTIATING THE PARIS AGREEMENT: THE INSIDER STORIES”
It could not have been more timely: On 7 October, only weeks ahead of COP26 at Glasgow, we released our new book “Negotiating the Paris Agreement: The Insider Stories”. The volume features real-life insights from negotiators at the forefront of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, including accounts from Laurence Tubiana, Xie Zhenhua, Sue Biniaz, Tosi Mpani-Mpanu, Jennifer Morgan and many others. Edited by Henrik Jepsen, Magnus Lundgren, Kai Monheim and Haley Walker, this work is part of CEMUNE’s continued efforts to promote global cooperation on climate change.
On 6 November, live from COP26 in Glasgow, CEMUNE celebrated the launch of the new book with a panel discussion hosted by the UNFCCC on the future of climate diplomacy and multilateral negotiations. Fiona Harvey, Jennifer Morgan, Peter Betts, Farhana Yamin and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal joined us on stage. Sharing first-hand experiences about the dos and don’ts of negotiation facilitation, our panelists also took questions from the audience in the room and following via livestream.
You missed the discussion? Find the on-demand stream to rewatch here.
Support the book by purchasing a copy via Cambridge University Press or Amazon.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE OF SUMMITS UNPLUGGED WITH LAURENT FABIUS
Over the course of October and November, we finally got to release a new episode of our “Summits Unplugged” podcast! This time it featured Laurent Fabius, former French Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the 2015 climate conference that created the historic Paris Agreement. 18 exclusive mini-interview clips accessible via our website and CEMUNE’s YouTube Channel offer you behind-the-scenes insights into how COP21 was run, the work of the UNFCCC Secretariat, lessons learnt on what it takes to successfully negotiate multilateral deals for climate action, and expert commentary on what was at stake at COP26 in Glasgow.
We would like to express our gratitude to all who made this podcast episode come to live. We thank Dr Kai Monheim and Dr. Hayley Walker for interviewing Laurent Fabius, Kate Helfenstein for writing the article that now can be found on our website, Emma Bluck for her advice on communications and post-production, Genesis Hazim and Julia Rusch for the social media extravaganza as well as Oleg Cetinic and Whitestone Media for the videography and post-production.
LAUNCH OF THE NEW WEBSITE! COURTESY OF OUR PRO-BONO PARTNER ERNST & YOUNG
This year CEMUNE had the good fortune of partnering for the relaunch of our website with Ernst & Young through their Ripples initiative. After 11 months of user testing, writing, and revision, our new, updated website is now live! Entirely revamped, it showcases even better the valuable work CEMUNE does.
Many thanks go to our partners EY Seren, who made this possible, Dori Szigeti and Daniel Wahl for the design, web development and patience as well as all involved CEMUNE members for their incredible work making it happen!
Head on over to our website and tell us what you think. Follow us on cemune.org
RESEARCH TIPS
As always, we provide you with some intriguing new publications on multilateral negotiations that advance research and our understanding of the field:
Allan, J. I., Roger, C. B., Hale, T. N., Bernstein, S., Tiberghien, Y., & Balme, R. (2021). Making the Paris agreement: historical processes and the drivers of institutional design. Political Studies. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00323217211049294)
Aykut, S. C., Morena, E., & Foyer, J. (2021). ‘Incantatory’ governance: global climate politics’ performative turn and its wider significance for global politics. International Politics, 58(4), 519–540. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-020-00250-8)
Earsom, J., & Delreux, T. (2021). Evaluating EU responsiveness to the evolution of the international regime complex on climate change. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 21(4), 711–728. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10784-021-09541-8)
Ohler, F., & Delreux, T. (2021). Role Perceptions in Global Environmental Negotiations: From Reformist Leaders to Conservative Bystanders. International Spectator, 56(3), 7–23. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03932729.2021.1939971)