BLAMING OTHERS DOES NOT HELP NEGOTIATIONS

There is a tendancy for everyone to blame other parties, either obliquely or directly. Proposals such as the Danish text create outrage that is often played out in the media. Blame is also pinned on those who are not meeting their Kyoto targets. China for example is blaming the US, EU and Japan for setting targets for emissions cuts that are not ambitious enough. Blame, blame, blame... should they not be spending their time negotiating more and blaming each other less?

Blaming others does not help negotiations

Yes, because... Blaming other parties can lead to diplomatic incidents

 

Publicly blaming others is playing to the gallery and is meant for public consumption rather than to offend the party who is being blamed. However if it does offend then it can have repercussions either on diplomatic relations generally or on these individual negotiations. A country who has been offended is far less likely to be willing to make a deal, or else will demand more to make up for the offence.

 

These blame games very rarely offend anyone, all partys know that it is part of the process of public negotiations.

 

Vote on this point: Blaming other parties can lead to diplomatic incidents

Absolutely Yes
Strongly Yes
Mostly Yes
Partially Yes
Neutral
Partially No
Mostly No
Strongly No
Absolutely No

Blaming others does not help negotiations

 

No, because... Can change behaviour

Blaming can also make them more stubbon and determined to defend their position, it offends the negotiators and reduces the chance that they will be willing to make concessions to get past the problem.

 

Blaming people can be useful in changing behaviour. Blaming someone can make them realise that what they are doing or have done is wrong and encourages them to change their view or in this case be more ambitious with targets. Or if they already know that their position is considered by many to be wrong going public can create a rapid u turn.

 

Vote on this point: Can change behaviour

Absolutely Yes
Strongly Yes
Mostly Yes
Partially Yes
Neutral
Partially No
Mostly No
Strongly No
Absolutely No

Blaming others does not help negotiations

 

No, because... Simply for the media so makes no difference

Blame is more than just for the media. It is a way for people to hold their own or foreign governments to hold them to account and put pressure on them to introduce regulations to introduce rules and incentives to reduce emissions for example. It is also for individuals and groups to identify obstacles to making progress on countering climate change.

 

Blame is simply for the media who are always after a story, if there was no blame going around the only possible stories would be about process, that tends to be considered very boring. So to keep the media's attention the countries involved have to brief the press and give the press things that they will consider interesting. This generally means pinning the blame on someone.

 

Vote on this point: Simply for the media so makes no difference

Absolutely Yes
Strongly Yes
Mostly Yes
Partially Yes
Neutral
Partially No
Mostly No
Strongly No
Absolutely No