ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses social movements and the role of civil society, including transnational advocacy networks and the various strategies used inside and outside United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, including litigation. The environmental justice movement became active in the 1980s, criticizing unequal distribution of environmental risks and hazards among poorer and disadvantaged population groups or minorities. Two concepts are at the heart of the activities of the movement: environmental racism and environmental discrimination. Since the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, civil society participation in decision-making processes within the United Nations system has been strengthened. Civil society participants are understood to bring expertise and credibility to international negotiations. One important example for civil society activism at the climate conferences is the transnational advocacy network Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group (HRCCWG). The most successful strategy the HRCCWG has employed for achieving its objectives was to build friendly relations with the decision-makers at the climate negotiations.
