Climate Change Negotiations: Performatives, Practices and Politics

This article provides an analysis of the global climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC, focusing on their "performatives, practices, and politics." It moves beyond a purely technical or legal analysis of the negotiations to a more sociological and critical perspective. The study examines the negotiations as a complex social field, a set of recurring "practices" through which different actors perform their roles and identities. The research explores the "performative" aspects of the negotiations, analyzing how the language, rhetoric, and rituals of the COP meetings are used to construct and contest different understandings of the climate problem and its solutions. The paper also delves into the deep-seated "politics" of the negotiations, particularly the persistent power asymmetries and conflicts of interest between the developed and developing countries. The analysis concludes that a deeper understanding of these social and political dynamics is essential for explaining the often-frustrating and incremental nature of the global climate regime.

The annual UN climate change conferences are massive and complex events, but what is really going on inside them? This paper offers a novel analytical framework for understanding the climate negotiations, one that focuses on their performatives, practices, and politics. The study begins by conceptualizing the negotiations as a set of institutionalized "practices," a recurring pattern of behavior through which actors from different countries and groups interact. The core of the article is an analysis of the "performative" dimension of these practices. It argues that the endless speeches, the drafting of texts, and the high-level declarations are not just "talk," but are powerful "speech acts" that create and shape the social reality of the climate regime. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the underlying "politics" of these performances. It deconstructs the deep and persistent North-South divide that structures the negotiations, showing how the different historical responsibilities and vulnerabilities of the developed and developing countries are performed and contested in the negotiating rooms. It also explores the role of non-state actors and the ways in which they seek to influence the process through their own performances and practices. The findings reveal a process that is as much about the construction of meaning and the contestation of norms as it is about the negotiation of emissions targets. The paper concludes that a purely technical or legal analysis of the climate negotiations is insufficient; to truly understand them, one must also analyze the complex and often-hidden social and political dramas that are being performed on the global stage.