A multicriteria methodology for global negotiations on climate change

Global negotiations on environmental issues are essentially multidimensional: there is no single factor that governs the concerns of all parties involved. We review some of the studies in the literature that analyze the outcomes of these negotiations and estimate the costs and benefits for different parties in adopting any particular position in the process. The multidimensional nature of these negotiations is brought out. We suggest a multicriteria methodology to support these negotiations, and we illustrate how it can be used to allocate the greenhouse gas reduction targets for a future year. The suggested methodology, which makes special reference to the multiplicative version of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (multiplicative AHP or MAHP), is shown to aid group decisions in negotiations.