Let us work together because we cannot do it alone

In the second day of IASIMUN, the Environment Committee debated the three major issues proposed and sustained by the delegates in the day before.

There have been five resolutions submitted in order to be voted in the Committee. “It doesn’t take much to improve our lives by protecting our planet,” Germany stated at the beginning. And this is what the delegates are pursuing to acquire through their answers to the environmental issues.

Germany, with her co-submitters, Guatemala, Ghana and Pakistan, read the first resolution, regarding the first committee topic: ensuring ecological sustainability in times of economical crisis. The fight has been conducted by Germany and Greece, due to different points of view regarding the same major issue. Whereas Germany promoted ecological education as a device in changing people’s view on pollution and other environmental contemporary problems, Greece considered there also are other solutions, such as NGOs or investment programs to support agriculture.

Nevertheless, the delegates have thought that nothing is possible without money. Increasing ecological taxes will help protecting environment and will bring growth to the overall budget, but will not work at a lower level, as some poor countries scarcely have enough resources for that. One answer might be a voluntary educational project and promoting the environment protection through the power of advertising. Finally, after debating Germany’s proposals for about one hour, the first resolution passed with a majority of votes, having two added amendments, one by China and one by Ghana.

The second resolution, sponsored by Czech Republic and co-submitted by East Timor, focused on reviewing the emissions trading procedure, as set out in the Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol. Raising the issue of dealing with the economic crisis and the environmental sustainability in the same time, the delegates spoke  about introducing a system were all UN countries should fight together to reduce pollution but still have enough money in order to provide food supplies or invest in agriculture.

On the other hand, Canada was standing against, considering that there should be introduced higher fees to the countries that pollute more. The delegate of China has raised two amendments; only one has passed. In the same time, it has been suggested the founding of an institution to sanction those who do not follow the Protocol, in order to enforce the supervision of the carbon market.

The other resolutions have been discussed by the end of the day, covering every aspect of the global environmental issues in question: ensuring ecological sustainability in times of crisis, promoting new and renewable sources of energy and reviewing the emissions trading procedure, as set out in Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol.

Written by: Andreea Oltean, Claudia Bejan