Topic: Promoting Sustainable Industry in the Developing World
Country: Austria
Delegate Name: Joanna Chen
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Austria position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
From 2000 to 2007, carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased 22%—8.2 billion tons. Everyone is facing the consequences of industrialization, and “rapid development” by developing countries and further industrialization by industrialized countries are exacerbating the problem. Since social, economic, and environmental issues are all interconnected, Austria believes that an integrated, concerted, worldwide green effort—from governments, citizens, industries, businesses, academia, and nongovernmental organizations—is the most beneficial and effective solution to achieve sustainability, create millions of jobs to combat poverty, and mitigate and reverse the present costs of industrialization. Developing countries may in fact stand to benefit as they are positioned to learn from the environmental mistakes of industrialized countries.
Both the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol obliges all industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 to 2012 by a least 5% compared to 1990. The European Union has embraced this goal by committing itself to 8%, and Austria, by the EU-internal system of burden sharing, has committed itself to 13%. It is time for the world to adopt this same collaboration on a larger scale.
Austria recognizes the importance of strengthening work with partners outside of the European Union, including rapidly developing countries. Wolfram Tertschnig, head of the Department of Sustainable Development and Environmental Subsidies and Austria's Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, co-chaired the Seventh Meeting of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy, which discussed energy efficiency for developing countries.
Under Millennium Development Goal 7 of 2000, Austria strives to ensure environmental sustainability, to reverse loss of environmental resources, and to reduce resource degradation, pollution, and waste. Austria also supports the phasing out of production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances, which degrade human health and the natural environment, as called for by the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol.
The Austrian government is currently funding a pilot project, “Support for the Development and Uptake of Clean Development Mechanism Projects in the Industrial Sector,” to be undertaken by UN Industrial Development Organization in cooperation with Austrian industry in the three geographically diverse countries of Mexico, South Africa, and Vietnam. Austria is working toward building partnerships with these host countries to achieve sustainability by cost-effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The project is structured around specific technologies and project types that represent priorities of participating developing countries and a learn-by-doing approach, creating jobs while reducing the carbon footprint of the populace.
Austria believes that sustainability must be one of the top priorities of the United Nations. However, Austria also understands that the UN needs the support of the world to integrate individual proposals, ideas, and actions into one concentrated, worldwide effort. Now is the time, and with the support of its member states, the United Nations can be the coordinator of an innovative global response.
