A New Hope For Our Planet?
- Manini Jain, Charlotta Moller, Alix Albrich
- Oct 29, 2017
- 2 min read
An article written during MUN-tag 2017
Although the day has been long and tiring, it has not taken a toll on the delegates in room 1.20 who were discussing climate change.
The debate started out strongly with the delegate of China, Emily Zürcher, stating China’s clause; “a movement towards decreasing greenhouse emissions would include increasing the number of solar, hydro and natural gas power producers, and not restraining the current electricity power factories, unless the emissions increase and there would then be restrictions, and the nation has a certain pace, done in its own way.”
Switzerland was quick to agree with the clause, declaring that they, and other, more economically developed countries (MEDCs) are currently increasing the number of overall solar panels and solar power plants used for sustainable energy, as it is dangerous to import fossil fuels. The delegate, Joshua Downey, also added that by limiting the usage of fossil fuels, for a sustainable future, Switzerland has become a very clean, environmentally friendly country.
Although the delegate of Germany, James Soo, agreed with the delegate of China’s clause and Switzerland’s representative’s comment (being that the overall goal is to lower carbon emissions), he also mentioned that poor or less economically developed countries (LEDCs) may not be able to afford using renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels, as the construction and maintenance of power plants can be very costly. This lead the discussion on to the representatives of the nations of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, who disagreed with the Representative of China’s clause.
The delegate of Saudi Arabia, Luke Tyler, made the valid point that building up the renewable energy industry, may poorly affect the economic growth of Saudi Arabia’s fossil fuel industry, as they are one of the world’s primary oil exporters. This would also affect the economy of countries who rely on the import of oil from Saudi Arabia. The United States of America representative, Emily Robb, supported the delegate of Saudi Arabia’s statement completely.
The delegates could not reach a consensus as to which actions to take, given the circumstances stated above, concluding the debate in such manner.
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