Topic: Promoting Ecologically Sound Development Strategies
Country: Saudi Arabia
Delegate Name: Gwen Hutchinson
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Saudi Arabia position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
It is with great hope that Saudi Arabia looks toward our ecological future, believing in confidence that we can unite to bring about significant change. Agriculturally we look to establish systems that are wholly sustainable, searching for cooperation from horticulturists to best serve our own nations as well as others for guidance in how to best achieve these goals. However, Saudi Arabia’s primary goals lie in the arenas where it has a greater stature. As a leader in oil, We can play a huge role in environmental impact, as we’ve already made strides towards alternative energy sources.
Now the primary question has been exactly how to tackle biodiversity and sustainability, choosing certain methods over others. Rather than starting with select methods, Saudi Arabia believes that we should focus on how exactly we set our goals and approach them at the very base of their structure. What we mean to say by that is that maybe we should try approaching methods for change by focusing locally, before we try and implement methods for global change. For example, the Saudi Energy Efficiency Center began to introduce energy efficiency labels in 2014 on appliances such as air conditioners, taking older models out of circulation. Through smaller, more local initiatives they aim to reduce energy demands within the next 20 years. The larger goal not only to decrease demands, but also to better measure supply and demand as a whole. In agriculture Saudi Arabia continues to look into better systems of irrigation, more efficient methods of agricultural waste management, and understanding of our own plants and what we can do to prevent things such as soil depletion through the help of horticulturists, as mentioned before. The entire point here being that to focus on local progress is also to forward us globally, with local focuses being more efficient in the fact that we can easily tailor plans to our individual countries needs.
With all of that in mind, a satisfactory resolution does indeed set goals for us globally and perhaps even nationally, but it also gives us lots of room to determine where exactly our efforts are best spent within our own nations. Incentives are not needed, despite past failures to meet the goals we have set or refusal to participate. The rewards are evident in the possible gains that result from participation. For Saudi Arabia this means diversifying our economy (oil dominance towards acceptance of alternative energy) and it means better supporting our own populations (sustainable agriculture). Together we will all have our own working parts to establish a better whole.
Saudi Arabia is very confident in our ability to affect change and to work together effectively to reach our end goal. Together through compromise and consideration of all else presented we can move towards a sound resolve.
