ABSTRACT
When the infamous US bandit Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” The logic is similar for many NGOs interested in the governance of global climate change.1 For many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations (UN) represents a focal point for access to the UN Member States rather than just an actor to be lobbied. NGOs are certainly interested in influencing diverse rule-making processes (both formal and informal, and at multiple levels – global, national and local),2 but the UN is not perceived as a rule-maker in the climate change issue. Instead, NGOs go to the UN and UN-sponsored negotiations because of their importance to states, and because the institutional structures of the UN (especially the UN-sponsored negotiations) provide NGOs access to the states that make the climate change rules and treaties.
