Update Paper
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Dear Delegates--
We have received a lot of questions about the position paper deadline. We've decided to postpone the deadline out of fairness to the UNEP delegates, since they have had significantly less time to work on their papers! The final deadline will be the first sesion of committee. By the time the first session starts, the paper should have been emailed to the chair at (unep@worldmun.org). Delegates should also bring a printed copy of their paper to hand in to the dais.
Thank you for your flexibility! If you have any concerns at all, please let the chair or myself (atrowbr@fas.harvard.edu) know.
Best,
Anna Trowbridge
USG Economic and Social Council and Regional Bodies
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Dear Delegates,
Hello and welcome to UNEP! My name is Scott Yu, and it is my pleasure to serve as your chair in addition to being the Under-Secretary-General of Business for this year’s conference in beautiful, breathtaking Vancouver. For me, this conference is particularly meaningful; as I was never involved in MUN in high school, serving on the Secretariat for such a world-class conference has been and will be a truly humbling and exciting experience. The incredible opportunity to meet and connect with so many students from all around the world should not be understated, and I look forward to getting to know you!
I am a rising sophomore at Harvard from Rockville, Maryland, majoring in indecision and minoring in economics. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate. I love music, and I enjoy composing and messing around on the piano a lot in my free time. Other than that, I am always down for a pick-up basketball game, a good book, or just a chill afternoon with friends.
With warm regards,
Scott Yu
Chair, UNEP
World Model United Nations 2012
unep@worldmun.org
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Topic A: Disposal of E-Waste
The explosive technological innovation of the last decade has placed into our hands devices of ever-increasing sophistication that bring news, social media, and diversion closer and closer to our fingertips (sometimes literally). Though attractive in form and function, the tablets, iPads, netbooks, 3D internet televisions, and other electronic gadgetry of our generation are accompanied by environmental issues of unprecedented importance. The rapid turnover exhibited by the tech industry implies enormous amounts of e-waste or e-scrap: discarded electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) and their parts. The huge e-waste production raises two large areas for concern: resource efficiency and environmental protection. This committee will endeavor to craft resolutions addressing both topics.
The ineffectual recycling of raw materials from EEE raises the risk for a purposeless and expensive depletion of the world’s supply of special and precious metals used in today’s electronics. Modern electronics contain up to 60 different elements, many of which are costly. Despite much legislative effort to ‘close the loop’ between production and disposal and to create thereby a circular flow economy, the majority of these valuable resources are still lost because of several distinct problems that afflict our e-waste recycling infrastructure. Though inappropriate collection and processing mechanisms comprise a significant part of the problem, another troubling reality is that there is a swelling, albeit illegal, flow of e-waste from developed economies into developing, transition countries that are incapable of recycling these materials in an environmentally responsible way. At these e-waste dumps, hazardous emissions (e.g., CFCs and HCFCs, lead5, arsenic, mercury) seep out of the improperly disposed materials, damaging the environment. Moreover, metal resource inefficiency implies greater reliance on primary production (mining), which leaves an environmental footprint much greater than does secondary production (recycling). Especially since this production can lead to 23.4 million tons of CO2 emissions – a number that continues to climb – this problem is becoming one of acute international concern that demands our attention. Over a series of committee sessions, the UNEP will identify these problems in greater detail and formulate guidelines that cultivate shared responsibility for the waste that we collectively generate.
Topic B: Dealing with Climate Change-Related Human Migration
Climate change-related migration is a subcategory of environmentally induced migration, defined as human migration linked to global climate change. Often, discussions of this problem focus on extremely vulnerable nations like the islands of the South Pacific, which, given the predicted rise in sea level over the next decades, are in grave danger of being completely inundated and having their entire populations displaced. However, the problem is more wide-reaching than this limited debate would suggest. The most recent climate change forecast predicts a rise in temperature, changes in precipitation patterns, and more frequent incidence of extreme weather, all of which have the potential to disastrously affect human populations all across the world. Natural disasters, desertification of farm land, and salination of fresh water sources, to name just a few issues caused by these environmental changes, may trigger migration or flight.
Though one of the UNEP’s main foci is climate change, the body has not yet explicitly discussed the effects of climate change on migration of human populations. It is particularly important that it do so because without the input of scientific bodies like the UNEP, it is impossible to fully understand and cope with this type of migration. Both social scientists and natural scientists have linked environmental change with migration patterns, but the research done in one field is often incongruous with the research done in the other. Social science literature points out a need for research that not only identifies populations vulnerable to climate change, but also accurately predicts what kinds of migration flows might result from climate change in vulnerable populations, based on on-the-ground realities.
The goal of debate in this committee will be to synthesize the existing research and create a comprehensive set of recommendations for governments. The recommendations will need to describe the humanitarian ramifications of the climate change problems and recommend what steps can be taken to both help prevent migration and cope with migration as it occurs. In addition, the committee will need to recommend what kinds of research are necessary in order to have a better understanding of the problem.