Trade and environment diplomacy

UN Climate Change Conference: Cancun

It is transparent that the significance of non-state actors in negotiations within the international arena has grown. Increasingly states are reliant on specialist information and new content in areas of policy, which are critical. Some areas include: economy, environment, security, and trade.

An example of the significance of non-government organisations within negotiations is the recent United Nations Environmental Cancun Summit. On the third day the summit entailed Proposals to reform the global carbon market dominated the third day of the international climate change. The summit turned to deadlock due to that negotiators such as Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing states stepped up calls for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects to be granted the right to issue carbon credits under the CDM – a proposal fiercely opposed by Brazil and a number of countries.
Negotiators from non-profit organizations where present to put pressure on countries such as Saudi Arabia to comply and understand the important cause.

The negotiations prompted calls from carbon traders for diplomats to urgently reach an agreement on the future of the scheme or risk fuelling fears the CDM will fold in 2012.

Henry Derwent, president and chief executive of the International Emissions Trading Association, in a statement.
"It is in no one's interest to let the future of the most successful mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol become a bargaining chip in these negotiations. And it would be tragic if mixed signals about how the CDM could be used across the world in the future deter desperately needed investment in developing countries."

This demonstrates the significance of non-profit organizations not just in relation to the cause but also to developing states, which do not hold as much power when in negotiations.

This is one example of such necessity for non-profit organizations, without such actors the powerful states may manipulate multilateral instances.