Book excerpt: This book will provide a comprehensive view of the twenty years of environmental negotiations that have evolved since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro. The authors of the book will demonstrate their unique perspective, having worked for the International Institute for Sustainable Development's Earth Negotiations Bulletin as well as in a wide range of academic settings. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin provides real-time reporting on United Nations environment and development negotiations and has covered every major negotiating session in over 25 different processes since 1992. Not only has it brought transparency into multilateral environmental negotiations, it has become the de facto reporting service of these meetings and most delegates consider it a 'must read' every morning. The authors' work is unique - it transcends multiple multilateral environmental agreements and processes over many years, enabling the authors to recognize trends and innovations. No current publication offers an insider's guide to multiple environmental processes covering trends during a 20-year period. Some of the issues that this book will elaborate on include: the impact of the proliferation of meetings (more than 200 days of environmental meetings each year), the major changes in actors (new states, new post-Cold War alignments, etc.), the changes in the access and role of NGOs in the negotiations, and the economization of environmental issues.