Explaining Variation in the Types of Diplomatic Activities of the EU in International Environmental Negotiations

This paper studies the EU’s diplomatic activity in international environmental forums. Analysing specific issues negotiated at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity 2021, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions COPs 2019 and the United Nations Environment Assembly 2021, the paper counters the general focus in the literature on climate change negotiations. The paper explains why the EU conducts different types of diplomatic activities in different negotiations. Variation might be explained based on the level of ambition of the EU’s position, the EU’s flexibility, its delegation size, as well as the experience of the negotiators involved. Diplomatic activities include speaking in contact groups, engaging in informal consultation, drafting compromise text and engaging with non-party stakeholders. The paper relies on two main data sources. First, interviews with different actors involved in the negotiations, mainly EU and non-EU delegates that were closely involved in the particular issue. Second, observations at the negotiation forums, conducted in 2019 and 2021. In addition, official documents (Council decisions, EU position papers, Commission documents as well as documents from the secretariats’ archives) and specialized press reports (particular ENDS Europe) are analysed. Triangulating these sources allows identifying the different factors that have an impact on the types of diplomatic activities the EU conducts in international environmental negotiations.