BRIMUN-ECOSOC-STUDYGUIDE

BREMEN INTERNATIONAL

MODEL UNITED NATIONS

11th Annual Conference

28th-30th March 2015

THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Study Guide

BRIMUN 2015– ECOSOC STUDY GUIDE

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About the Chairs

Maria Alejandra Traslosheros, Jacobs University

Maria Alejandra Traslosheros is studying Integrated Environmental Studies at Jacobs University Bremen. She is earning her BSc in

Environmental Studies, aiming to specialize in Energy

Policy and Technology in her 2nd year. She is a graduate of the United World College USA, where she participated in the local state-wide competition and trained younger delegates in the MUN Club.

Maria-Bianca Leonte, Jacobs University Bremen

Maria-Bianca Leonte is from Galati, Romania. She is a first-year Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience student at Jacobs University Bremen. In addition to chairing the ECOSOC committee, she is part of the Admissions Team at BRIMUN 2015 Among many things she learnt from her MUN experience, one thing is that this is the best place to make new friends and have fun.


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Dear Delegates,

It is a pleasure to welcome you to BRIMUN 2015 International Conference. This year we are preparing the most exciting, diverse and challenging conference in the history of BRIMUN. Moreover, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome to ECOSOC Committee!

As part of our theme this year, Energy & the Environment, we will be debating and discussing a pressing topic which humanity faces today: Ensuring Universal Availability of Sustainable Energy.

We strongly encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the background guide and to do additional reading on these issues, the ways in which your country is affected, and the political stances and alliances that exist in the topic before the beginning of the conference. You will discover that being well-prepared as a delegate will be both rewarding and rewarded. Moreover, strong committees with motivated members tend to be more exciting, and more fun. Also, never forget that this conference gives you the opportunity to make friendships that can last forever.

Regardless of whether you are a veteran MUN delegate or someone just getting to know the rules of procedure, we hope to see you present and debating. If you encounter difficulties before, or during the conference, please do not hesitate to ask us at any time in person or via email. We greatly look forward to seeing you in April!

Best regards,

Maria-Bianca Leonte & Alejandra Traslosheros


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Ensuring Universal Availability of Sustainable Energy

Section 1: Introduction 1.1: The Economic Importance of an Energy Supply The topic of energy – defined as electrical power to fuel industry and for a high quality of life – has gained importance over the 20th Century. Today, it is a “critical enabler.”1 Access to low-price, secure and constantly available energy has become a priority for governments across the world. For individual welfare, energy is essential for sanitation, clean water provision, and health-care. Energy is also the cornerstone of any economy, providing mechanical power, transportation, and telecommunication. The correlation between energy and welfare has long been understood. Countries where the median income is below $2 tend to have low electrification rates. Despite how critical energy is, few countries have a reliable, cheap supply of energy. The Economic and Social Affairs Committee of the United Nations should therefore strive to create mechanisms to ensure that all peoples and all nations have access to this critical 1.2: The Challenge of Climate Change Even a fewer number of countries have a sustainable supply of energy– including developed and wealthy economies. The challenge caused by an unsustainable, fuel-based supply, have long been established. CO2 is responsible for a significant amount of the enhanced greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect will cause global warming by trapping solar heat, and cause issues such as increased climatological variability. Questions remain about the impact on precipitation, sea level, and agricultural practices.2 (As will be stated below, noteworthy sciences are confident that the answers to these questions are not positive). It is therefore essential to generate a carbon-free energy supply. Section 2: History of Energy-Related Negotiations With the 1987 Brundtland Report, the United Nations directed its attention towards the issues of sustainability.3 Attention was sharpened in 1990. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) issued its first assessment report. For the very first time, the world had a powerful, recognizable agency stating that:

1 International Energy Agency, Modern Energy for All, Why It Matters http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/modernenergyforallwhyitmatters/ 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/impact/ 3 http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm


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§ We calculate with confidence that: ...CO2 has been responsible for over

half the enhanced greenhouse effect; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60% to stabilise their concentrations at today's levels...

§ Based on current models, we predict: under [BAU] increase of global mean temperature during the [21st] century of about 0.3 oC per decade (with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade); this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls, rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC [to] about 0.1 oC per decade.

§ There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing, magnitude and regional patterns of climate change, due to our incomplete understanding of: sources and sinks of GHGs; clouds; oceans; polar ice sheets.4

Since then, the international community has started important efforts to curtail

the emission of greenhouse gasses. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated. (The video It involved three important mechanisms for reducing emissions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReOj12UAus4). It’s key mechanisms, in a nutshell, are:

1. Emissions trading: Units of carbon emissions can be traded in the so-called

“carbon market.” 2. Clean Development Mechanisms (otherwise known as Offsets in

Developing Countries): Allows a country with an emissions-limitation commitment under the protocol to implement an emissions-reduction project in developing countries.

3. Joint Implementation (Offsets in Annex B Countries): Allows a country with a limitation or reduction commitment under the protocol to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) by implementing an emissions removal project in another Annex B country.

Notoriously, the Kyoto Protocol was not universally implemented. For the Protocol to come into force, it needed to be ratified by the countries responsible for at least 55% of all 1990 CO2 emissions. The USA, Australia, and Russia were unwilling to sign. However, when Russia joined in 2004, the circumstances changed. After years of debate, it came into effect on February 16th, 2005. It was re-ratified in 2012 at Doha’s Conference of the Parties , and extended until 2020. However, it faced important drawbacks: Japan, Russia and New Zealand are no longer participating signatories since Doha.

4http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/1992%20IPCC%20Supplement/IPCC_1990_and_1992_Assessments/English/ipcc_90_92_assessments_far_overview.pdf


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Section 3: Where We Are Today 3.1: Sustainability (or Lack thereof) in Energy Supply

Some groups argue that Kyoto is not effective enough. For example: At Lima COP, an environmentalist group criticized Australia. At Lima 2015, Australia had made diplomatic and environmentalist strides with important pledges. Yet:

“Australia may be able to increase its industrial emissions by 26% by 2020 and still easily meet its Kyoto protocol targets, new analysis released at the Lima climate talks suggests.The reason for the apparent anomaly is because it has secured a succession of advantageous deals on how land use is credited in carbon accounting rules, according to the Climate Action Tracker group.” --Readfern, the Guardian5.

Examples of similar “rule-tweaking” abound. There are also plenty of negative cases: The United States emitted 5,270 million metric tons of CO26 in 2012, above the commitment pledged at Kyoto of 4,686 million metric tons.

On the other hand, some industrialized countries have made more significant strides: altogether, the EU member countries “over-achieved” their Kyoto emissions targets, reducing their collective emissions by 18%.7 The German Energiewende is a world-renowned, unique attempt to completely transform energy supply at such a large industrial scale. It involves, among other things:

• A nuclear phase-out, where 20 GW of energy are to be replaced with 24.7 GW

• Support to investors, through feed-in tariffs, guaranteeing a given price for energy fed into a grid

• Taxation on environmentally unfriendly practices, the revenue of which has been supposedly used for societal benefit

• An acceleration of grid expansion8 Even though its success remains to be determined, it is a heartening example that other developed countries can follow suit.

5 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/12/australia-could-increase-emissions-26-and-still-meet-kyoto-pledge 6 US. Energy Information Administration http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/IEDIndex3.cfm?tid=90&pid=44&aid=8 7 http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2013100901_en.htm 8 http://energytransition.de/


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3.2: Energy Poverty On the other side of the spectrum, too little energy is being used. Nearly 1.3 billion people are without access to electricity and 2.7 billion people use biomass, which can be threatening to health and life. These people are concentrated primarily Sub-Saharan Africa, developing Asia, and other rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 620 million people (two-thirds of the population) live without electricity, and nearly 730 million people rely on dangerous, inefficient forms of cooking. Solid biomass is used more than any other type of fuel, which is dangerous, and the average electricity consumption cannot even power a 50-watt lightbulb.9 The World Energy Outlook predicts that one billion people will gain access to electricity in Africa by 2040, 950 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. However, population growth will outpace achievements. The remaining global population without electricity access will be concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa –75% in 2040, compared with 50% today. This projection indicates that current efforts to tackle this problem are not successfully achieving universal access by 2030, the target of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative. Instead, some 635 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are set to remain without electricity by 2030.10 3.3: Plummeting Prices In June of 2014, a barrel of oil was almost $115. At the beginning of December, it was $70. The halving of prices is partly due to a poor economy, but also to greater production. Arabic OPEC producers supplied more oil in the last months than was predicted. At the same time, in the United States, shale oil has sky-rocketed, with 9 million of daily barrels produced. While this bid well for the economy of the United States, other economies – including Russia, Nigeria, and Venezuela – are facing troubles11. For those concerned with sustainable energy access, interesting questions remain: What does this mean for energy access? Will it hinder the efforts of renewables and nuclear to take hold? Will it aid the task of increasing universal energy access?

9 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/ 10 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/ 11 http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21635472-economics-oil-have-changed-some-businesses-will-go-bust-market-will-be

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BRIMUN-ECOSOC-STUDYGUIDE