Environmental Lobbying at the United Nations

A Guide to Protecting Our Planet

Felix Dodds, Chris Spence

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040379097
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Environment & Energy Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book provides a step-by-step, insiders' guide on how to lobby and engage successfully at the United Nations. It reveals how the United Nations, which plays such a key role on issues from climate change to pollution of our air, land and sea, really works.

In a world of rapid climate change, a flood of forever chemicals and plastic pollution, and the extinction of so much wildlife around the world, we need the convening power of the United Nations now more than ever. What's more, we need individuals and organisations dedicated to making sure the United Nations has the most positive impact it can. And yet, global diplomacy can be dauntingly challenging and complex. Drawing on the authors' combined 60 years of professional experience with the United Nations system, this book contains essential information for individuals and organisations seeking to engage in this complex and confusing world. From the very basic question of how to ensure you can even attend the event, this book offers hard-to-find information to help readers through this labyrinth, including insider acronyms and language, how and when are the best times to put your issue forward to achieve maximum impact, how the negotiations really work, who are the key players and how to engage with those players. The authors reveal how stakeholders can be effective from the very first day of their first UN meeting. Drawing on interviews with other experts, as well as training materials that have been produced by the authors, this book demystifies what to many outsiders can seem like an opaque and confusing world.

This book is an essential resource for individuals and organisations entering the world of the United Nations for the first time, as well as those looking to gain a deeper understanding of how the world of international diplomacy really works.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Endorsements Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• 1 Why do UN meetings matter? The case for getting involved
• 2 What are international agreements on the environment and sustainable development? Who is involved?
• 3 How does a UN meeting operate?
• 4 Why attend a UN meeting?
• 5 How should I prepare for a UN meeting?
• 6 What to do at the meeting: Starting out
• 7 What to do at the meeting: The middle stage
• 8 What to do at the meeting: The end game (and what comes after)
• 9 What is it like being a government representative?
• 10 Using media to highlight your presence and reinforce your message
• Conclusion
• Index