The changing global climate has been of concern to some in the scientific community since the late 19th century. It did not become a political concern to governments around the world until almost a century later, starting in the late 1980s (Paterson 1996). Since then, people from the former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed and indigenous climate activist Archana Sorengand to the former Vice President of the United States Al Gore and Nobel Prize-winning Mexican scientist Mario Molina have referred to the changing climate as a ‘crisis’. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of these individuals and countless others, the ‘crisis’ continues. This chapter considers the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Secretariat (hereafter referred to as ‘the Secretariat’) as a key actor in the fight against climate change and considers its role in the struggle. It argues that the failures of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit served as a crisis point and, thus, a turning point in efforts to address climate change and that the Secretariat spearheaded many of these changes.

Specifically, this chapter considers the Secretariat's role since its origins through key climate conferences (namely COP3 in Kyoto, COP15 in Copenhagen and COP21 in Paris), how it evolved over time and why. The first section considers the Secretariat's limited role in the early years where it adopted the ascribed role of facilitator and honest broker. Abiding by its official restrictive mandate, it worked within the existing global order and under the purview of UN member states. It was, however, even within these constraints able to incorporate innovative strategies into its work and, ultimately, international climate agreements. It then considers the crises at and following the failures of the Copenhagen Summit and the Secretariat's new achieved role of reformer leader. It pushed the bounds of the state-centred international order to work with non-state actors to incentivize and entice states to take greater action. It sought out innovative means in the hopes of transforming the climate regime to more successfully address the crisis.

The next section highlights the intensifying pressures on the Secretariat to produce stronger and more effective treaties as a source of the role change. Increasing audience demands, intensifying alter expectations and internal (ego) role strain compelled the Secretariat to expand its role set to include reformer leader.