Because the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009, failed to reach an agreement on emissions commitments beyond 2012, studying negotiation strategies of country delegations remains relevant. This editorial to the special issue of Climate Policy notes that particularly interesting countries to examine are the emerging economies of Brazil, China, India and South Africa. The article asks: what drives countries’ positions and strategies at the international level, and which of them seem to be successful? All the studies in the special issue use a common database, which includes three novel data sets derived from: a series of interviews with country delegates; hand-coding of country submissions to the UNFCCC secretariat; and country statements made during the negotiations as reported by the International Institute for Sustainable Development in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.