INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP In addition to working domestically, parliamentarians can also be diplomats, use their position to engage an international audience, and show leadership to other states, particularly those most responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions. Most conventional understandings of international relations would conclude that small states have little prospect of influencing the global climate change agenda. Lacking recourse to “hard power� can potentially preclude them from exerting influence on issues that require far-reaching change. The diversity of small states is also another limiting factor that would traditionally prohibit effective collective bargaining. Yet despite this, small states have managed to show disproportionate influence on the global stage. Although much work is to be done to achieve the level of change required to meet globally agreed targets, small states have successfully formed a unified voice during the complex climate change negotiations and succeeded in seeing their concerns and priorities incorporated into legally binding conventions. The following provides a guide for different narratives and strategies that small states can adopt in order to give them greater influence on the international stage. An effective narrative will work in parallel with an effective leadership strategy. Then, after identifying relevant allies and partners, small states can form a negotiating and lobbying framework to affect change in the international arena.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SMALL STATES
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