Topic: Impact of Urbanization
Country: Spain
Delegate Name: Alexis Jones
School: Vicksburg High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Spain position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
Based on 2015 records, Spain has 79.6% of total population found in urban areas, making it #57 compared to the rest of the world. With a slow growth rate, they are still affected by the outcomes of urbanization (change in local weather patterns, temperature rise, increased energy consumption) in major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. Madrid is the most populated city in Spain, considering it’s the capital
Spain already started combating urbanization issues with energy consumption by changing to an alternative energy source, they are encouraging others to follow the trend for hopes of lowering air pollution, and change in local weather patterns as a result of global warming. They are also encouraging through the use of the Foster Rented Housing, Rehabilitation of Buildings and Urban Regeneration and Renewal, where they provide support to encourage rented housing, rather than ownership in order to create jobs and improve energy savings and efficiency. To help with the issue of poverty in their community, the Spanish government has been (since 1981) developing plans to help with home-owning by financially supporting them.
Spain still has issues containing the growing rate of unemployment with 24.5% of total unemployment in all of Spain, being #172 in unemployment out of the world, but with the help of new plans of and public and government, Spain can lower these rates and find new jobs and opportunities for their people. Spain also has 21.2% of their population below the poverty line but the government can work out certain plans and again, with the help of the urban regeneration and renewal plan, poverty can be decreased and has increased since put in action.
If certain countries are also facing issues with unemployment and poverty, along with urban sprawl, they need to enact in a plan to control the flow of urbanization and poverty, protect natural resources by using alternative energy sources, and borrowing money from more financially stable countries in order to enact those plans for countries with low budgets.
