ABSTRACT
Aided by modern information and communications technologies, a range of non–state actors, including environmental groups, scientists and the business community exert a powerful influence in international environmental negotiations and in international institutions. The international NCO movement is composed of a range of types of organizations that operate at different levels of governance and with a range of styles and approaches. International panels of scientists who were convened to study both ozone depletion and climate change helped to forge the scientific consensus needed to push these political processes forward. An international panel of economists is analysing the economic costs of responding to climate change, and of suffering its effects. The United Nation (UN) Economic and Social Council is reviewing the rules for participation of citizens' groups in the UN system at large. Legal briefs and other critical information are generally unavailable to the public, and there is no opportunity for citizens' groups to testify or make submissions.
