Government influence in information production in international organizations

While existing research has extensively studied the conditions under which information can facilitate international cooperation, this paper focuses on the politics of how such information is produced inside international organizations (IOs) in the first place. We develop an argument that models government incentives to seek influence in IO information production as a function of national interests. Focusing on unique data from written government comments on the draft text of the “Summary for Policymakers” flagship report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we present two results: first, that governments are more likely to try shape report text when national interests are at stake; and second, that governments comment strategically on exactly those parts of text that are likely to have distributional effects at home. These findings challenge the common assumption that IO information is free from government influence and make us rethink the role of information in global governance.