UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in opening the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019 warned of great fractures, calling on the members to “reconnect with the Organization’s values, uphold human rights and restore trust.” Those words might equally have been applied to one of the historic fracture lines of the multilateral trading system. One of the most contentious topics within the system since its founding has been how best to include developing countries in its benefits and obligations. No solution has been found that has gained universal support.

The perspective of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is provided by Tosi Mpanu Mpanu. United around key demands including enshrining the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibility in the Agreement, recognizing the impacts of climate change already being experienced by developing countries and the need to adapt as well as to respond to the losses and damages inflicted, these highly vulnerable groups were able to sign on to a deal in Paris with confidence thanks to a number of carefully crafted political moments that took place in the run-up to COP 21, including the funding of the first projects of the Green Climate Fund and the launch of a number of African initiatives. Mpanu Mpanu draws on his considerable chairing experience, to share some tricks of the trade for brokering consensus. He compares the “staircase of Paris“, which all countries climb at their own pace, to the elevator of the Kyoto Protocol, which only carried a limited number of passengers. Agreement in Paris was contingent on a more consultative French Presidency learning process lessons from Copenhagen, and on the right global political momentum.