Topic:
Country: France
Delegate Name: Mikey Beusse
SPECPOL
Arctic Exploitation
France
Mikey Beusse
The large amount of undiscovered reserves in the Arctic Circle has been discussed by many countries. The Artic Circle is estimated to contain at least 13% of this undiscovered reserve of natural gas and oil. Even though it would be very costly, many countries have been discussing whether or not to exploit the Arctic Circle for these natural resources. This is creating a dispute over land division amongst the world. Specifically between arctic states (Denmark, Canada, United States, Russia, and Norway) and non-arctic states (all other states interested in the arctic). The dispute over the land division is how it should be devised and amongst who should it be divided. Non-Arctic states believe that the land should be shared amongst the nations interested in the lands resources and the already existing territory holders (Arctic 5). Some of the countries interested in the land could possibly bring harm to the land by extracting the resources which will lead to rising temperatures in the arctic. As a French Delegate, we would like to try and preserve the Arctic and not have its environment harmed.
France has been interested with the Arctic land since 1990 when we started observing the Barents Euro-Arctic Council. Then, in 2000 we were able to reach observer status of the Artic Council, and have always been active and interested in the Arctic Circle. We have been aiming to reach goals with the arctic circle and it’s land set for 2030, releasing our French Polar Strategy on April 5, 2022. We were going to team up with Russia so we could plan to co-organize the 4th edition of the Arctic Science Ministerial with Russia in 2023, but we stopped this after Russia’s invasion which could be an overall threat to the enviornment and goverance in the Arctic. We have always had the intent of preserving the Arctic’s land because the extraction of the resources in the arctic
In 1982 the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) passed a policy that helps preserve the Arctic as it is. Many nations are not as happy with the terms of this policy and are looking to divide the territory to exploit and extract natural resources. The UN is trying to preserve the environment of the Arctic and not allow this over-exploititon.
France believes that the land should be preserved with intent to not harm it’s environment. Not to be offered to countries who could possibly endanger the environment, but to countries who will safely preserve the land. France would like to discuss how to insure the safety of the environment of the Arctic from countries who want to over-exploit the land.
