ABSTRACT
The environmental diplomacy is highly dependent on science. Environmental diplomacy would in traditional terms be considered part of "low politics" such as trade negotiations and other "welfare"–related interactions between states. As environmental measures affect political actors in different ways — mainly as a consequence of different levels of economic development, differences related to the industrial base or geographic position — environmental diplomacy is in charge of preventing or settling conflicts between nations. The sometimes important role played by nongovernmental organization is one guarantee that environmental diplomacy will take place in a much more open setting than most other types of diplomacy. Environmental diplomacy should be understood as a learning process; by drawing on past experience, one may avoid some pitfalls, but one may equally run into new hitherto unknown difficulties. Past negotiations may serve as models, but changes in the negotiating environment should never be neglected.
