Topic: Green Initiatives Within the United Nations System
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Jasmine Walker
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All South Africa position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
The South African government is very much in favor of green initiatives, and would like to take further steps to “saving the planet”, as it were. We have several programs currently in place to reach this goal, including our green buildings plan, and we are interested in increasing the green programs we run. We also are a large supporter of nuclear power, and would be interested in exploring that more.
We are in favor of green initiatives in developed countries, but only when we are sure that they will not be detrimental to the environment. We understand that the United Nations Environmental Programme means well with the programs that they run, but when they negatively affect the environment, we cannot agree with them, and we won’t get behind those plans.
We are a large producer of greenhouse gases, but if we are provided the funds and the ways to lower them by UNEP, we would certainly be interested. We are looking to lower these, and have discussed plans to do so, though we cannot at this time start anything on our own. However, South Africa feels that to ask developing nations such as our own to change our policies to match those of developed nations is foolish, because we can’t be expected to do that when we don’t have the same economy or means as the developed nations. We would like to see Green Initiatives implemented by the UNEP, but we are not sure that nations such as our own would be able to effectively use them, and so are skeptical of how well they would work.
South Africa understands the importance of green initiatives being put in place by the UNEP, but we are not sure that they are the best route to go for nations such as our own, who are already precariously balanced in terms of our economy and the way that our country is run. We would like to be sure that this wouldn’t mess up what is already a less-than-secure economy before we go ahead with any plans.
