Studyguideunea

The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

United Nations Environmental Assembly Is Green Economy Possible in Developing Countries?

Study Guide Vitaliy Komar 1

The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

Letter from the Chair Distinguished delegates, Welcome to the Bratislava Model UN 2014 to one of the most relevant assemblies of our time – United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA)!

My name is Vitaliy Komar and I am very honoured to serve as your chairperson during the assembly. I attend the IB programme at the Jur Hronec Gymnasium in Bratislava which organizes this wonderful event.

Like the majority of IB students the majority of my time during the year is consumed by studying; however one can always find time for something extra – like you all, which came to the BratMUN. I personally try to shove several “extras” into my life: music (particularly guitar), reading (usually classics like Dostoyevsky) and film. The environment, specifically its practical interaction with the economic system of countries, without a doubt lies in the area of highest interest for me. Indeed, I want to study this area at the university.

Last year I held the vice-chair position of the ECOSOC committee at the BratMUN. It means that I practically fulfilled the function of the chairperson when he was occupied with other tasks. I hope that my experience and competence will ensure productive and smooth process and cooperation during the assembly.

I am full of excitement about our experience in the committee, and am persuaded that you have similar emotions towards it.

If you will have any uncertainties, questions or advices/wishes about the process and your stay in Bratislava, do not hesitate to contact me at komarv3@gmail.com +421944918703 Sincerely, Vitaliy Komar

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

Table of Contents Letter from the Chair...………………...………………………………………….........2 Table of Contents...................................................................................................3 What is UNEA........................................................................................................4 What is Green Economy? Green development? – Topic Overview….....…………6 Possible Solutions and Outcomes….....………………………………………………8 Closing Remarks From the Chairperson.……………………………..……….……10

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

What is UNEA? “UNEA is arguably the world’s most important platform for environmental policymaking” (1) Simply put the United Nations Environmental Assembly is a meeting of member states of the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program). Its first meeting concerned mainly sustainable development goals established on the previous meetings: “is designed to inform ongoing discussions on the formulation of a set of targets and indicators that would succeed the Millennium Development Goals.” (2) The assembly itself appeared relatively recently – it was held for the first and so far the only time on 23-27 June of 2014 in the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. It emerged as a result United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development of 2012 (Rio+20) to ensure better higher segment international communication and cooperation. Mr Achim Steiner, the executive director of the UNEP characterised UNEA as “a body designed to place environmental issues at the heart of the global agenda.”(3) Before the existence of the environmental assembly, its functions were fulfilled by the UNEP’s Governing Council which was practically a governing body of the UNEP consisting of 58 members. Now in the UNEA all 193 member states can take part in the discussion and communication. In addition different stakeholders and groups can be represented on the assembly, therefore it can enable governments “to make wise decisions in the broader setting of the economy, and society…” (4).

During the assembly this year two symposia took place during the assembly – “Environmental Rule of Law” and “Financing a Green Economy”. One of the outcomes of the assembly shows “that policy and regulatory frameworks governing the allocation of capital need to support the flow of finance into the green economy, and that there is much to be learned from individual country innovation.” (5) Besides that it provided concrete advices like to introduce “green bonds for infrastructure financing” and many others found in the same article.

Generally the UNEA is the newest possible platform of the United Nations designed not to just talk empty and fancy talks about the environmental issues, but to actually tackle the problems of sustainable development. Even if UNEP’s mandate sounds quite vague and general, with the establishing of UNEA its importance and capability start to increase.

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

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http://www.greengrowthknowledge.org/blog/green-economy-holdsspotlight-unea

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http://www.unep.org/unea/about.asp

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http://www.unep.org/unea/ed_intro.asp Achim Steiner

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kp1hRms9L0 Jacquie McGlade

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http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?

DocumentID=2791&ArticleID=10925&l=en

Useful links for further information on UNEA and UNEP structure: 1. http://www.iisd.ca/vol16/enb16122e.html Summary of the first UNEA 2. http://www.unep.org/pdf/brochures/EnvironmentalGovernance.pdf Example of an older brochure produced by UNEP 3. http://www.unep.org/About/ What is UNEP? 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy6uNDaitdY process leading to establishing of UNEA

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

What is Green Economy? Green development?

Topic Overview “Green economy is an economy that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” (6) From its title one can understand that it should be an economy concerned with the issues of environment and sustainability. However since it is the economy, it should not leave behind the main economic goals which include steady economic growth, equal income distribution and price stability. The other objective – sustainable development was added only in the second half of twentieth century, and unfortunately presents the highest challenge to achieve.

The green economy does not only mean an economy where governments make their initial and primary to care about the environment. In order to keep the economy working and fulfill its initial goals it has to care primarily on the economic side of development as long as including positive environmental and social aspects. In order to better understand the concept of green economy, it could be useful to take a look at existing examples.

Germany, the third largest economy in the OECD countries provides shows how a developed country with a strong industry can remain competitive with investment into sustainability. The focus of sustainability in the western-European country lies in the field of energy. Following the 1972 oil crisis and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe, German people pursue a goal to provide themselves with energy independence and insured safety. The government started subsidizing the sector of renewables and support education and research in this area. Another are that Germany pursues to change is logistics and transport. Starting with the “Green City” of Freiburg the systems of integrated regional transport system started to occur in the country. Such changes from drastic production for any price goals to sustainable developments could not occur right away, and as some Germans say it took a generation. Nowadays being green and driving a bicycle replaced the ideals of maximised exports and driving big BMWs. Such changes happened in Germany not only because Germans wanted to save the environment, but also because of the country’s economic ability and mentality of people to have a stable future for them and their children.

Nowadays, however, such development is a necessity; both for the developed and developing, and developed countries are interested in sustainability of the developing ones. Simply because they live on the same planet and share one atmosphere. Thus the cooperation between the developing and the developed, struggle of the UN, and the efforts of the countries themselves, already resulted in “success stories” (7) of sustainable development towards a green economy in the developing countries.

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014 Developed economies where some of the primary economic goals were already achieved and which are now maintained, have different possibilities of fulfilling the task of sustainable development. In order to develop weaker economies “greenly” steps could be different.

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http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/aboutgei/whatisgei/tabid/29784/defaul t.aspx http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/SuccessStories/tabid/29863/Default.a spx success stories

Further useful links: 

A very basic introduction to green economy by OECD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9AS6KT7a5Y

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Germany’s government vision and actions about establishing a green economy: http://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/EN/StatischeSeiten/Schwe rpunkte/Nachhaltigkeit/nachhaltigkeit-2006-07-27-die-nationalenachhaltigkeitsstrategie.html?nn=393722

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

Possible Solutions and Outcomes Most probably all the delegates in the spirit of UN will try to answer the topicquestion of our committee positively, different countries to different extent.

Generally sustainable development of an economy should sustainably manage the following fields: ensure economic development, maintain equal income distribution, and sustainably manage environmental aspects like ecosystems management, emission controls and environmental governance. The UNEP with cooperation with multiple other UN agencies constantly tries to provide governments with guidelines and advices to maintain green economy.

Firstly in order to establish communication and sharing experiences between the developed and developing, successful and struggling, the UNEP creates platforms with cooperation with other committees, governments and NGOs. For instance there are Green Growth Knowledge Platform, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and many others. Such platforms could be united and enforced to bring the international cooperation to the high segment level of policymaking, like during the 2014 UNEA summit.

Secondly partnerships of different levels already take place, with initiative of UN agencies, governments and different stakeholders. Such partnerships include Open Energy Info (OpenEI), Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services of the World Bank etc. On our assembly some direct dialogues between several specific countries could be opened. Also assuming that our session is itself a manifestation of partnership and cooperation of countries, I would encourage you, distinguished delegates to propose concrete steps and programs. With this aim I recommend you to evaluate and propose the usage of existing funds and mechanisms for establishing of green economy.

Such proposals might concern allocation of financial means from the SCF (Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries) which include over 550 million $ to the budget of Chad (only hypothetically) in order to develop solar energy production in that country. Note that there is a vast number of different foundation programs on the international level like Global Environment Facility (GEF) with approx. $10 bill or Clean Technology Fund with around $5 bill. Besides that the delegate of Chad could establish direct partnership with the delegate of for example Germany, with the aim of sharing experiences.

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

For inspiration and guiding I strongly recommend you to acquaint yourself with UN publications such as guidelines and pathways towards building a green economy. With this purpose I provide you with some useful links on this topic and also with some real examples of green economic development: 1. http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/documents/ger/ger_final_d ec_2011/Green%20EconomyReport_Final_Dec2011.pdf Pathways To Sustainable Development And Poverty Eradication 2. http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php? page=view&type=400&nr=916&menu=35 A Guidebook Economy

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Green

3. http://www.economist.com/node/21556904 An “Economist” article about the green economies in developing countries with some examples 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCRn7vRvqNw Pavan Sukhdev, environmental economist and UNEP head of Green Economy Initiative on the interview about real steps towards green economies

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The 14. Bratislava Model United Nations Conference, 7th – 9th November 2014

Closing Remarks From the Chairperson Dear delegates, I as a chairperson, with help of my vice-chairs will do everything possible to keep procedural and moral order in the committee. However if some mistakes from my side will occur, or already occurred in this study guide (I am only a human too) do not hesitate to correct me.

I hope the provided information and advices will help you to orient yourself better in the field of our committee topic. Undoubtedly I recommend you to read at least the information following the links that I provided. However it would be much better if you would do further research in order to find out more ways and strategies of establishing green economy I developing states.

It would help if the proposed solutions would be as specific as possible. For instance a clause in the draft resolution should say “allocate $25 million from the GEF to the ministry of environment of Rwanda to subsidize sustainable energy production in the country” (merely an example). In addition it would ease the clarity and hence save our time if the propositions and resolutions were formulated in concise and succinct language. This also applies to motions and addresses – try to maximally concentrate on actual propositions and solutions, and articulate during the speeches.

Even if the topic circulates around the developing countries, you should not forget that the developed-developing cooperation can be a key to success. The delegates representing developed countries could take different standpoints, either promoting the green economies in developing countries and sharing experience, or say that they are not green themselves to help others. It is important to have a standpoint, an opinion on the issue, which is relevant to the given country’s economic profile and situation.

Finally I urge you, dear delegates, to be tolerant and polite to each other and the committee. It is understandable that we all can have different speaker’s abilities or level of the English language. Do not forget that on BratMUN we all are leaning something and getting unforgettable priceless experience.

Prepare good arguments, speak with confidence, and have no fear. I sincerely hope that we will have very productive debates, and a great time in our assembly. Probably all of you await this from BratMUN, so let’s achieve our goal!

Best regards and wishes, Vitaliy Komar

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