Tracing procedural justice at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics

Tracing procedural justice at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Tracing procedural justice at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics Judy Jingwei Xie, Nora Escher, Matilda E. Dunn, Yurong Yu, Iain Staffell, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4396332/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Procedural justice is essential in climate negotiation spaces to ensure inclusivity and transparency in a global challenge. However, annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are increasing in size and complexity, which makes discourse and organisational relationships more uneven and harder to understand. Here, we analyse UNFCCC COP side events during 2003-2023 using topic modelling to understand the evolution of discourse and topic framing. We use participant nomination data to investigate how incumbent business interest groups access COPs and evaluate the relationships between side event organisers and speakers. Among energy side events, we identified growing interests in fossil fuels, marked by a uniquely collaborative organisation network of mainly NGOs. Incumbent corporations gain access to COPs through NGOs in developed countries and through governments in developing countries, with limited presence leading UNFCCC side events. We show the importance of systematically tracing and considering processes at COP as a first step to improving procedural justice at the highest level of global climate governance. Scientific community and society/Scientific community/Institutions Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy justice Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Decision making Scientific community and society/Scientific community/Policy Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files COPanalysisv1SI.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4396332","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":302110728,"identity":"3a60a8de-6d9d-4bf1-9840-36afa880e49c","order_by":0,"name":"Judy Jingwei Xie","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYGhgMMFRJybGCuAYMMRPwAIS1nbIxhWngIaoHoa0tLbICyCWthbuAxPPCB7XB6n9jZg48rCux4GNgPP2DmOYPPYWwJB2fwHM5tk85LNjxjkMzDwJNmwMxzA58W5gOHeSRAWnLMJBuAihkYchiYeT7g08LYcPiPweF0Nukc858NBvU8DPxvCGkB2sKQkJYA1GLG2GBwmIdBAmQLPoc1A/3Sc8DGEOQXoMOO87BJPDM4OAeP9w3be4w//PwnIS8/O/fgx4Y/1XL8/MkPH7w5hkdLM5wJjRFQnB7ArYGBQR7B5MGnbhSMglEwCkYyAACt30tZw1r5NwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6591-2436","institution":"Imperial College London","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Judy","middleName":"Jingwei","lastName":"Xie","suffix":""},{"id":302110729,"identity":"0f8608e4-dfc6-4208-ac93-fca81e653636","order_by":1,"name":"Nora Escher","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Imperial College London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nora","middleName":"","lastName":"Escher","suffix":""},{"id":302110730,"identity":"c389a4bc-18d7-4255-b02b-b2f9d7cfa228","order_by":2,"name":"Matilda E. 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