Augustine Aldea
08 June 2022
Unification and collaboration would be words used to describe the council sessions 3, 4, and 5 for the council of the UNFCCC. A unison vote lies in the council. As the countries of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Germany, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Norway, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.K, and the US all agree to their first Draft Memorandum which was proposed by the delegate of Canada. Which was pertaining to the enhancement of the Kyoto Protocol. Questions such as how does the council plan to assist the developing countries to be able to make a move forward in achieving their sustainability goals and how the developing countries assist themselves were answered through this Draft Memorandum
Successfully they proceed to the discussion of the duration of the targets of the third commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The timeline of 5 years was one of the suggested periods, although many other delegates had some concerns about this such as countries suffering due to the pandemic as well as financial problems. The council had proposed a 2 part commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol which comprises 3 main variables. The first 3 years are for countries to set their own targets and goals. After this time period, a milestone check would be conducted with all member states for them to review their current progress in their own targets. If they find any of the targets unrealistic or unattainable then the targets will go under alterations and improvements. Following this, there would be the 2nd part of the commitment period of 5 years where countries will continue their efforts according to their new goals or targets. This all ends up to 8 yrs as the final timeline proposed. The council wishes to implement this commitment period as soon as possible. The 2nd Agenda ended with the 2nd Draft Memorandum finished.
Moving on to the next agenda the topic of targeting deforestation was brought up. With the quick thinking skills of each of the delegates, various solutions addressing the issue were brought up and discussed with the council. Delegates talked about proper approaches in regard to deforestation. 4 main approaches to this problem were the regulatory law aspect, market mechanism aspect, research aspect, and lastly the aspect of compact cities. The council plans on using the Regulatory aspect to enforce international sustainability laws.
With the market mechanisms, they can “encourage the market to support sustainable companies” as said by the delegate of the United Kingdom. The market mechanism can also be used in expanding the idea of sustainability by targeting existing organisms and businesses. The Saudi Arabia delegate raised a question concerning how governments will be incentivized to make moves if their economy relies on agriculture. Their answer resulted that using the market mechanisms will help Least Developed Countries (LDC) gain the support needed.
The research aspect as said by the US delegate is a “very promising method”. Through the research aspect, the delegates aim to conduct green technology research as well as come up with new solutions to solve the complication of illegal deforestation. The US delegate also talked about the use of the research aspect for reforestation. An example of this is the use of research and enterprise to find ways to implement reforestation like using drones to drop seeds on the land for easy farming.
Lastly is the aspect of compact cities or urbanization proposed by the delegate of the UK. The delegate of the UK believes with compact cities, countries can become more economically productive. The delegate of the UK also believes that if there are more people, more emissions, and more health problems, making the idea of compact cities is a notable solution. The entire council thought of this aspect as a great idea and proposed the Compact City Collaboration Committee (CCCC). It is said to provide through funding via the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and by collaborating with Non-Annex 1 countries to construct and develop compact cities, comprising of but limited to mixed land use, efficient public transportation systems, and others.
Just before the council decided to submit their 3rd Draft Memorandum the question of how will they be able to fund this proposed aspect considering other countries cannot even pay their own debts. Countries like Japan, The US, and Greece have been reported to have one of the largest debts in the world. Although countries like Canada are “rich” would they be generous enough to fund the entire project? Stated here was another concern that was presented to the council. The council agreed that this solution may be quite idealistic. As a result, this concern had left the council thinking and questioning before submitting their 3rd Draft Memorandum.