By Nell Greenfieldboyce for NPR.

When you go out with friends to a bar or a restaurant, there’s always this awkward moment when the waiter shows up with the check and you’ve got to figure out how to split the bill. Well, something similar is happening right now in climate change negotiations.

The United Nations is trying to get nearly 200 countries to agree on a plan for how to fight global warming. This week negotiators are in Bonn, Germany, for their last meeting before the final summit starts Nov. 30 in Paris.

The big move for countries to put forward plans is actually quite impressive.

And while a lot of the U.N. negotiation is pretty dry, technical stuff — there’s diplomat-speak and bickering over the exact wording of documents — some of the dynamics would be familiar to anyone who has ever been out drinking with their buddies.