Membership-linked issue specialization within the G77 in UN climate negotiations

Abstract The Group of 77 and China (G77) coordinates developing-country positions in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), while many members also participate through overlapping negotiating groups. This article examines how public intervention activity associated with those memberships is distributed across six policy areas. Using country interventions reported in 201 Earth Negotiations Bulletin reports covering 46 meetings from 2010 to 2025, the analysis links interventions to eligible subgroup memberships. Location quotients adjust issue-specific activity for each coalition family’s overall presence, distinguishing relative specialization from absolute volume. Vulnerability-coalition memberships show the clearest and most persistent specialization in loss and damage, alongside a weaker full-period concentration in adaptation. Regional and issue-specific memberships are relatively concentrated in finance over the full period, although this pattern becomes approximately proportional after 2012. Defensive-developmentalist memberships account for most mitigation activity but display only modest relative specialization. Patterns for response measures vary across periods and actor specifications, while carbon-market activity remains broadly proportional. The findings reveal a structured but uneven distribution of public issue activity across overlapping G77 memberships and provide a common basis for distinguishing persistent specialization from period-sensitive patterns in UNFCCC negotiations.