6.1 The importance of coalitions

The climate change negotiations take place among 194 countries. It is impossible to negotiate with each country individually. This means that countries try to develop coalitions with other countries. Such coalitions are necessary to make the negotiations manageable, to reduce the complexity of the issues and the numbers of negotiating groups. Further, such coalitions can reduce transaction costs for countries by helping them to pool their resources and increase their negotiation leverage. Coalitions can be used to put issues on the agenda, to negotiate a point of view, and to modify or break a consensus. Coalitions can be power-based (e.g., G-77 versus non-G-77; see Section 7), issue-specific (e.g., Alliance of Small Island States ­ AOSIS), institutionalized or formal (e.g., the European Union ­ EU), political or constructed (e.g., JUSSCANNZ). The disadvantages of coalitions is that although in theory one has the flexibility to manoeuvre in different groups, in practice it is very difficult to move out of a specific coalition.