Topic: UN's Role in preparing for Global Climate Shift
Country: Pakistan
Delegate Name: Matt Harmon
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Pakistan position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
Pakistan would like to show its concern for the changing global climate and we believe that much could be done on a global scale to combat this issue, which is severely harming the world in its current state. The issue at hand is not an issue that affects some countries and doesn’t affect others. Every country is affected by this issue and that is why we believe this committee must come to an agreement on what we are to do to reduce our influence on the climate. We as a global community have tried to pass legislation that regulates our pollution and influence on the climate (i.e. Kyoto Protocol) but this committee must draft a resolution that everyone can agree with. We believe reducing every country’s greenhouse gas emissions is the most important obstacle we must tackle in this committee.
One question we must address in both debate and resolutions in this committee is how can we include both developed and developing countries in a solution that satisfies both groups while making sure we do not give special privileges? A country cannot be given completely new technology to help reduce their footprint such as electric motor vehicles and wind farms without another country objecting. The solution has to be fair to both sides. Another issue Pakistan would like to see debated is how far can the UN go in preparing for global climate shift? What can the UN do if a country does not want help from the UN due to their crumbling economy or other miscellaneous issues going on in their country? Should any resolution provide a way for a country to “opt-out” from any requirements set forth by any documentation? Pakistan believes that if there is any way for a country to opt-out of requirements, then it is not a global compromise so we must be creative in our solutions and learn from our mistakes we examined from the Kyoto Protocol. Those are some questions we would like to be considered when in debate.
Pakistan is not a completely developed country. Therefore, we do not have all of the resources that a more developed country such as the United States or China would have when reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We believe a good resolution would address developing countries and their lack of resources. We would like a resolution that does not alienate developing countries by requiring a country to provide all of its tools to combat global climate shift. As we said earlier though, we do not want a one-sided resolution. We must have the support of the developed countries if developing countries such as Pakistan were to be given new technology by an outside source. That is what we believe a good resolution should encompass.
The Kyoto Protocol was a great step towards reducing our impact on the climate. The only problem with it was that it did not give enough time for a country to commit to it. At the Cancun Climate Change Conference in 2010, Pakistan said a more solid outcome would have come out of the Kyoto Protocol if it had a second commitment period. A country needs time to decide if they have the resources and the time to help with this worth-while cause so a second commitment period would have probably gained a lot of more countries that supported the document. That is what any resolution adopted in our committee needs. It needs a timeline that supports the idea that a country has multiple opportunities to join on to the resolution’s benefits. Pakistan would look favorably upon other countries signing the document the first time around since it could do nothing but good for most countries if written correctly, but we should allow countries more chances to join on to any ideas we form. A country shouldn’t have to makes such a detrimental decision at one time.
Pakistan believes that we could do a lot of important work in this committee. We believe that this committee will take some very crucial strides in fighting global climate shifts and we look forward to compromising on any solution we create in committee.
