Environmental Lobbying at the United Nations

Felix Dodds is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina's Water Institute and a consultant advising stakeholders on United Nations engagement. He has written or edited 26 books, including Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy (Routledge, 2022), Tomorrow’s People and New Technologies (Routledge, 2021) and Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals (Routledge, 2016). Felix was also a key contributor to the UN's sustainable development initiatives, including chairing the 2011 UN DPI NGO conference that proposed the first Sustainable Development Goals.Chris Spence is an environmentalist, writer and former leader of nonprofits in New York, New Zealand, and California. He has consulted for the UN, IUCN, and IISD, working in over 40 countries. An award-winning writer, his books include Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy (Routledge, 2022) and Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet (2005). Chris has also served as a journalist, political advisor and board member for several environmental organisations.

• Chapter 1: Why do UN meetings matter? The case for getting involved.Chapter 2: What are international agreements on the environment and sustainable development? Who is involved?Chapter 3: How does a UN meeting operate?Chapter 4: Why attend a UN meeting?Chapter 5: How should I prepare for a UN meeting?Chapter 6: What to do at the meeting: Starting out.Chapter 7: What to do at the meeting: The middle stage.Chapter 8: What to do at the meeting: The end game (and what comes after)Chapter 9: What is it like being a government representative?Chapter 10: Using media to highlight your presence and reinforce your messageConclusion

"Much of everyday life, in both personal and professional spaces, is about negotiation. Lobbying is closely connected to negotiating, and is an art. For those who work in an around the multilateral space, negotiation and lobbying skills are critical for the development and success of policy agendas which are central to human wellbeing. Despite this, many who work in these spaces start without formal training, guidance or information in negotiations and lobbying. I am grateful that the prolific writer on development as articulated in the United Nations and nongovernmental forums, is sharing his vast experience on lobbying and how it should best and most effectively, be done. Many will thank him for these invaluable insights. Yet another worthwhile contribution to the body of literature around U.N processes, well done Felix and Chris!”Liz Thompson, Ambassador, Barbados"This book is brilliant. Beautifully written, engaging and informative. Felix and Chris are able to explain how the UN works better than anyone else I have met. This book is their gift to the next generation of those seeking to influence positive outcomes at this incredibly important institution. For all its faults and complicated processes, the UN represents the main global fora to promote world peace. Importantly - and as this book points out - the UN has convened positive progress across a broad range of associated issues and over a long period of time. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious to many that unsustainable economic growth is going to drive geopolitical unrest that could undermine financial markets and national security. We are going to need the UN to be well informed and increasingly effective on harnessing financial markets to help stop such disasters from taking place. I wish luck to all those who seek to help the UN promote more sustainable economic development that undergirds world peace. The UN needs you. And you need this book."Steve Waygood, Chief Sustainable Finance Officer at Aviva Investors"During my days as UN Major Groups Coordinator, I witnessed firsthand how inclusive stakeholder engagement and multilateral collaboration are critical to shaping the UN decision-making, especially the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is an essential resource for anyone striving to navigate UN complex processes and help influence the environmental agenda. After offering a convincing argument to engage, it equips stakeholders and negotiators with description of processes, concrete steps, timelines, and practical strategies, including by building alliances to amplify their voices, to do so. At a time when multilateralism is more important than ever to address global challenges like climate change, inequality, and sustainable development, this guide empowers readers to actively engage in shaping policies that create meaningful, lasting change.”Chantal Line Carpentier, Head, Trade, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development“This practical lobbying guide, rich in lessons learned from multilateral negotiations, reveals the importance of knowing how to navigate United Nations halls to make a difference. An engaged and effective multilateralism, involving all stakeholders, is the way forward to solve global issues. Dodds and Spence's compelling arguments serve as a wake-up call to understand that “global cooperation is our only last, and best, hope of success in facing down the myriad planetary crises we currently face.”Paula Caballero and Patti Londoño (authors of Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals)"Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have produced an invaluable guide to the art of advocacy in the service of the highest objectives of human development and planetary protection. Dodds' decades-long experience as a practitioner of this art in all major UN negotiation processes dealing with the environment and sustainable development is drawn on to rich effect. The authors are to be congratulated on a refreshing and highly readable account of the role which focused and well-prepared lobbying by stakeholders in such processes can play in nurturing and shaping agreements, in keeping levels of ambition high and in delivering outcomes which are of lasting benefit to humanity and the planet".Ambassador David Donoghue, co-facilitator of the intergovernmental negotiations on the 2030 Agenda.“Felix and Chris have UN lobbying down to an artform and this book is an excellent guide to how to hone your skills and become more effective and have greater influence in multilateral negotiations and in shaping global environmental outcomes.”Andrew Higham, Co-Founder Future Climate Cooperation“Let Felix and Chris be your guides. They put in the 10,000 hours, they know who the people are and how the system works, or doesn’t, and where the power is or isn’t.”James Cameron, Hon Fellow Grantham Centre, Imperial College London; Director Ignite Power; Senior Advisor Pollination, Worthwhile Capital and Undaunted.“Superheroes aren’t born – they’re made!This book puts you in the middle of the action – behind the placards, in the corridors, and inside the government offices where decisions get made. It shows how one person, in the right place, at the right time, with the right message, can make the world a better place. It may look like chaos, but Chris and Felix deftly navigate the complexities of the UN, find poetry in process, and show how all of us can all become effective agents of change.”Aaron Salzberg, former Special Coordinator for Water at the U.S. Department of State; Global Fellow, Environmental Security, Woodrow Wilson Center“Felix Dodds and Chris Spence not only understands how individuals and organisations can engage in the world of the United Nations but, alongside other inspirational people, they have worked tirelessly to open up spaces for non-Governments actors to provide vital information, influence agenda setting, outcome documents and follow up and review processes in the UN system. I for one am sincerely grateful for their ongoing work and efforts. The book is a record of the best practices for stakeholders to engage in the UN to help all of us coordinate our efforts to care for people and nature in our policy, practices and scientific endeavours at national and global levels.”Patrick Paul Walsh,UCD Professor of Global Affairs and Sustainable Futures. Vice President of Education at UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)“The “must have” multi-stakeholder guide to United Nations meetings, produced by two veterans who together have more than 60 years practical experience. Written in user-friendly, lay person’s language, with handy tables outlining major agreements and the associated negotiating processes, lots of practical examples and fascinating “insiderstories”, this guide to protecting our planet could not be more timely for all those interested in engaging with the United Nations to advocate for positive change in these challenging times.”Ambassador Amanda Ellis, former New Zealand Ambassador to the United Nations (Geneva) and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy