4.5 Consensus is not unanimity

Decisions in a negotiation process can traditionally be taken by unanimity, voting or consensus. Unanimity calls for explicit agreement of all Parties. Consensus falls short of that. It is a process that aims at securing agreement from all, or at least most countries. If there is no explicit objection, a decision can be adopted by consensus. Majority voting consists of simple majority, qualified majority (the adoption of formulae such as 3/4th, 7/8th, etc.), weighted majority(4) and double majority(5) rules.

In the early days of the UN, there were only a few developing countries. However, now with 130 G-77 (and non-Annex I) countries and another 23 non-G-77 developing countries (see Table 8), developing countries always have a simple majority and, depending on the formula chosen, also the majority in terms of percentages. This puts the negotiation process in the hands of the developing countries. Developed countries have the advantage when weighted majority or double majority systems are chosen. Hence, those groups of countries in the minority such as the EU, Annex I and even OPEC prefer to have all decisions taken by consensus, rather than through a majority voting process. This, however, can slow down the decision-making process. On some occasions, in order to reach a consensus, the Chair may ignore the objection of a country.