Despite the relevance of education-specific negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the increasingly influential role of the UNFCCC secretariat therein, research in this area is still scarce. In this article, we contribute to closing this research gap by exploring how the UNFCCC secretariat becomes involved in and has latent influence on the education-specific debates surrounding global climate conferences and the related information exchange on Twitter. Our analysis extends previous findings on the impact of environmental treaty secretariats by combining theories and methods in novel ways. Specifically, we apply Social Network Theory (SNT) and derive data from participant observations and Twitter, which enables us to analyze the particular role and influence of the UNFCCC treaty secretariat within education-specific negotiations. We find that the secretariat increases its influence by strategically establishing links to actors beyond the formal negotiation parties and thereby gathering support for its preferred policy outcomes. Furthermore, we show that the climate secretariat occupies a central and influential position within the education-specific communication networks in UNFCCC negotiations.

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Climate Change,Climate Change Education,Climate Policy,International Public Administration,Social Network Analysis,Social Network Theory,Twitter,UNFCCC

• Earth and related Environmental Sciences - Natural Sciences
• Political Science - Social Sciences
• Social and Economic Geography - Social Sciences