International negotiations on climate change have become proverbial for their repeated failure to deliver policy output. Formal UNFCCC discussions since December 2007 have not produced new policy agreements except a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol that is considerably weaker than the original agreement. The argument advanced here is that UN climate negotiations have already succeeded in facilitating policy change without formal agreements. Persuasion has played its part and arguments about the economics of climate policy have led to the reconsideration of national interests. The importance of the UNFCCC talks are in spreading influential ideas that alter cost-benefit calculations about domestic policy. The conversations during negotiations help explain the worldwide proliferation of climate-friendly policies today that signal a global ‘Green Shift,’ an economic transition to low-carbon development.

Rado Dimitrov is associate professor in political science at the University of Western Ontario, and consultant on climate diplomacy to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He serves on the European Union delegation at climate negotiations, and has participated in UN diplomacy since 1999 as UN rapporteur. His academic research on diplomacy, climate change politics and global environmental governance appear in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, and Global Environmental Politics, Review of Policy Research, as well as his book Science and International Environmental Policy.