Christiana Figueres and the Collaborative Approach to Negotiating Climate Action

This case study centers on Harvard’s Program on Negotiation 2022 Great Negotiator, Christiana Figueres, and her efforts as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to build momentum for, and ultimately pass, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

As UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres was tasked with a seemingly insurmountable challenge of putting together an impactful, global climate agreement. Coming out of the dramatic failure of the Copenhagen summit five years before, many believed that such an agreement was not possible. However, with persistent optimism and careful, targeted interventions aimed at building momentum, in 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 participating nations and set forth a new global consensus framework for international climate action.

Figueres had to personally undergo a transformation to let go of her identity as a Costa Rican diplomat so she could approach the negotiations from a global perspective and meet each participating nation from their perspective. The negotiation process itself was not just the two-week conference in Paris but instead was a years-long series of actions “away from the table" taken by Figueres and others to help enhance the probability of a successful outcome at the negotiating table. These actions included coalition building discussions with private industry and civil society groups, like-minded nations, in which small teams of strategic influencers worked with partners behind the scenes to build support for an ambitious outcome. By bringing different coalitions of countries and non-state actors together to lead the way, a more expansive agreement became possible.