BIOGRAPHY

Mayang Krisnawardhani

Mayang Krisnawardhani or commonly known as Mayang is a third year Social Welfare

Student from the Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Indonesia. She has

been actively involved in MUN ever since she starts her college year. She has join several

Model United Nations both nationals and international, last time she has been trusted to be

the head delegate of Harvard World Model United Nations 2015 in Seoul, South Korea. Not

only as a delegate she also has been trusted to chair prestigious MUN such as Indonesia

MUN 2014 and the latest Singapore MUN 2015 held by National University of Singapore in

the ASEAN+3 council.

Other than Model United Nations she has been an active spokesperson of the environment,

giving her the opportunity to work under the Indonesia National board of Climate change as

well as briefly interning as a consultant of sustainability and climate change in

Pricewaterhouse Coopers. She has many hopes in SMAN 8 MUN as it would be her first time

being a Director.

Neta Cynara

NetaCynara is a sophomore in Universitas Indonesia, majoring in International Relations.

She’s been passionate about global issues ever since she won compet ition about the law and

constitution of Indonesia. Currently, her major interests are human rights, warfare, and The

Middle East.

She’s actively involved in many international event such as being an LO for Iran parliament

during Asian African Conference Commemoration 2015 andConference on Indonesian

Foreign Policy. She also attended International Student Conference 61 in Japan, together with

her college mates representing Indonesia. Model United Nations is a new thing for her, and

the first MUN was Padjadjaran MUN 2015 when she managed to snatch Best Position Paper.

She also chaired IMATION and JakartaMUN 2015 in which both were Human Rights

Council, so environmental issue is new for her. However, she’s excited to welcome all the

UNEP delegates and looking forward to the discussion.

Nilam Laksitarasmi

Nilam Laksitarasmi is a third year student at University of Indonesia. She is currently

pursuing a major in Accounting. She started her MUN career at UI MUN Club, and since

then she claims to have fallen in love with MUN. She has joined some Model United Nations,

such as Indonesia MUN and Singapore MUN. Besides being a delegate, Nilam is actively

involved in University of Indonesia Model United Nations board of secretariat, AIESEC

University of Indonesia, and of course she is actively involved in pursuing good grade for her

studies. When she has the time, she enjoys travelling, singing, dancing, and horseback riding.

One of her pet peeves is being made to write a short paragraph about herself. This is her first

time being an assistant director and she is really excited to meet all delegates and looking

forward for not only the fruitful debates, but also a whole lot of fun.

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations Environmental

Programmeestablished to covers a wide

range of issues regarding the atmosphere,

marine and terrestrial ecosystems,

environmental governance and green

economy. It has played a significant role in

developing international environmental

conventions, promoting environmental

science and information and illustrating

how those can be implemented in

conjunction with policy, working on the

development and implementation of policy

with national governments, regional

institutions in conjunction with

environmental non-governmental

organizations (NGOs).

Going back to the industrial revolution,

once what we called as “the greatest

breakthrough in human history” ended in

the possibility of the end of human race as

we know it.Since 1900 it the earth has gain

a significantly amount of carbon waste. If

the current situation could not be

mitigated, It means that the earth

temperature would rise above 2oC if there

is no action taken to prevent the situation.

Sources: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis

Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2012)

International Energy Agency, World Energy

Outlook (2012)

Climate change that once called as a

scientific myth has gain recognition from

our current modern society. The

scientifical prove of the current alarming

raise of temperature have create massive

change starting from the inconsistency of

climate change, extreme weather, and raise

of sea level. Where it has been

acknowledge that it is indeed hampers the

human life starting from food insecurity,

new and incurable diseases as well as

disaster that creates a major setback in

human life.

It is no longer the problem of develop or

developing countries but the problem of

the whole global citizen, the idea of

reducing carbon waste of each country has

been scientifically calculated in hope that

it could reduce the impact and the massive

grown of destruction of our earth. Now it

is in the hand of our delegate to find the

best solution as well as work as the

citizen of the world for the best solution

that could be beneficial for both develop

and developing countries.

HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE

The United Nations Environmental

Programme (UNEP) first established in

1972 as a result of the United Nations

Conference on the Human Environment

back in 1972. As a global environmental

authority and advocate that sets the global

environmental agenda, UNEP are entitled

to promote comprehensive implementation

within the environmental dimension of

sustainable development within the United

Nations. Since its establishment, UNEP

has played a significant role in promoting,

developing, and formulating policies that

bound within the realm of environment

within land and sea for the greater good of

its United Nations member with wide

range of partners, including United

Nations entities, international

organizations, national governments, non-

governmental organizations, the private

sector and civil society.

The United Nations Environmental

Programme (UNEP) as a United Nations

body have the power to only recommend

and have no power to create legally

binding resolutions between country.

However as a United Nations body that

specialize in the realm of environment,

UNEP has the ability to give direct

recommendations as well as cooperate

with other United Nations bodies such as

UNFCCC and other related bodies.

TOPIC AREA: Zero carbon emission

by 2070

In the current modern climate change

debates, it is argued that CO2 should

incorporate the principal historical

responsibility where it is believed that the

rich should pay for its past contribution to

global warming. Based on the statistic

from 1900-2004 it has been approved that

many developing countries share of

emission stated back in time of the

industrial revolution. Significantly United

Kingdom as the leader of the industrial

revolution and United State of America

that contribute as the biggest historical

share of 314,772m metric tonnes of carbon

dioxide.

UNEP Emission Gap report becomes the

global emission guideline for the earth to

stay within 2oC limit in a business as usual

scenario. Within this perspective it is

imperative that every development aspect

to furthermore consider sustainable and

environmental side in order to minimize

carbon output whether it is in developed or

developing country.

In order to limit global temperature rise to

2oC and avoid the worst impact of climate

change, global carbon neutrality should be

attained by mid-to-late-century. United

Nationals Environment Programme

(UNEP) report says,the world will face

what Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change scientists have described as

“severe, widespread and irreversible”

effects from climate change. Following

that statement United Nations has warns

that the world have to cut carbon dioxide

emission the latest by 2070 to keep global

warming below dangerous level and to

prevent global catastrophe.

In order to stay within the safe temperature

limit it, the earth must not exceed an

estimated budget of 1,000 gigatonnes of

carbon dioxide for it will result in

irreversible climate change impact. To

avoid exceeding of budget, global carbon

neutrality should be reach between 2055

and 2070 meaning that the global carbon

dioxide emission must reach zero on the

global scale.

CURRENT SITUATIONS

Case Studies: Food Security

Climate change has affected four

dimension of food security: food

availability, food accessibility, food

utilization and food systems stability. It

will have an impact on human health,

livelihood assets, food production and

distribution channels, as well as changing

purchasing power and market flows. Its

impacts will be both short term, resulting

from more frequent and more intense

extreme weather events, and long term,

caused by changing temperatures and

precipitation patterns.

As agriculture has become the main

income for most developing countries as

well as producing most of staples food we

eat today, it is become an urgency that

action taken to minimize this impact. Food

insecurity risks in loss of assets that would

hamper both developed and developing

country. Reminded that agriculture,

forestry, and fisheries not only affected by

climate change but also contribute to it as

it emits greenhouse gases.

Case studies: Sea Level Rise

As it has been stated the current global

temperature has risen to almost 2oC over

the course of decade. This has been

causing the increase of volume of global

ocean due to ocean warming cause by

thermal expansion that cause loss of ice by

glaciers and ice sheet. It is a certainty that

global sea level will continue to rise

depends on future emission, this would

cause to the loss of land area due to

drowning.

The most affected area would be Small

Island as it would lose part of its area or

their whole island completely such as

Tuvalu and Fiji. If such thing were to

happen millions of citizen will lost their

home and forced to evacuate to a safer

ground. It is why prevention must took

place in order to avoid this prediction.

ACTION TAKEN

Carbon Trading

In attempt to reduce global emission and

slowing climate change, international

climate change policy introduced its

central pillar, Carbon Trading or also

named as Emission Trading. Carbon

trading allows an economy to sell or buy

permission to emit a certain amount of

emissions from or to other emitters, who

are below or above their limit of emission.

The famous form of carbon trading is

known as "Cap and Trade". Cap means the

legal limit of pollutants an economy is

allowed to emit in a year. Permits are

pollutions allowance given to the emitters

and the entities must hold enough permits

to cover all the pollutants they emit in a

year.

Companies or other entities are required to

stay within the limit of pollutants they are

allowed to emit, but they are also allowed

to trade the permit of every ton of

pollution they emit. Carbon trading works

like this, if a company emits pollution

above the limit, their permits surely cannot

cover all the pollutants it emits. On the

other side, if a company reduces emissions

more than it should reduce, it won't use all

its permits and can trade those permits to

the company who need more permits. Each

permit in a carbon trading is considered

equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide

equivalent. Carbon trading is also an

attempt to create economic incentives for

an economy to reduce the pollutants they

emit and turn the reduction into income for

the company, unlike the former policy,

which emphasize on penalties for economy

that emit pollutants above the limit.

However, criticisms have grown since the

first time carbon trading signed by 180

countries back in 1997. Opposition to

carbon trading has grown to belief that

carbon trading is aimed at the wrong

objective. Carbon trading is believed to

give only a little contribution to reduce

global warming. Instead, it is believed to

give the advantage and profits to the

greenhouse gasses polluters. The negative

evaluation of carbon trading and negative

issues that happened around the world

confirmed this opposite view. Carbon

trading scheme intended to save the total

emissions cost by creating cost effective

reduction in the market. This theory is

based on the assumption that the market is

perfectly efficient, which never occurred

in real life. In actual cases, not all trades

are rational. They are caused by unreliable

information, various costs for trading, and

error in company's decision-making

process. These are the reasons why the

actual cost of carbon trading is higher than

it should be.

Deforestation Policy (REDD)

Deforestation and forest degradation,

through infrastructure development,

agricultural expansion, destructive

logging, etc., are responsible for

approximately 15 percent of global

greenhouse gas emissions. This number

makes deforestation became the second

leading factor of global warming. With

this big contribution, it's clear that

combating deforestation is one of the most

effective ways to reduce global carbon

emissions. In 2005, UNFCCC discussed a

mechanism to reduce the carbon emissions

through the reduction of deforestation.

REDD stands for Reducing Emissions

From Deforestation and Forest

Degradation. It's a commitment for the

parties to reduce deforestation and forest

degradation below certain amount of

baseline and the parties who able to meet

the target will receive valuable credits in

carbon market for reducing carbon

emissions. The basic idea of REDD is;

countries that are able and willing to

reduce emissions through reducing

deforestation should be financially

compensated for their action.

Blue Carbon Initiative

Coastal ecosystems are one of most

productive on earth, as they provide

numerous benefits and services that are

essential for climate change adaptation

along coasts globally. Mangroves, tidal

marshes, and seagrass meadow; they

sequester and store significant amounts of

coastal blue carbon from the atmosphere

and ocean. The carbon is stored

aboveground in the biomass of plants (tree

trunks, stems and leaves), below ground in

the plant biomass (root systems and

rhizomes), and in the carbon-rich organic

soils typical to these ecosystems. Utilizing

the work of this ecosystem to mitigate

climate change, The Blue Carbon Initiative

was then established. It formed Science

and Policy working groups in order to

achieve several goals; one of which is

develop management approaches, financial

incentives and policy mechanisms for

ensuring the conservation, restoration and

sustainable use of coastal blue carbon

ecosystems.

Renewable Energy

Conventional fuels (oil, coal, and natural

gas) recently provide 85% of total energy

used worldwide. Apart from being limited,

the energy produced from these fuels also

results in by-products emission; polluting

the environment. One effort to mitigate the

emission is using less-polluting energy,

which is the renewable one. Renewable

energy sources come in various form:

hydro, wind, solar, ocean, geothermal—

and the last, which is said to be the single

largest one today according to

International Energy Agency—biomass

energy.

As the largest source of renewable energy,

bioenergy provides roughly 10% of world

primary energy supply. Most of which is

consumed by developing countries, where

it provides basic energy for cooking and

heating. The demand for this energy

becomes higher due to the increasing oil

price, resulting risky economy of reliant

countries. With locally produced biofuels,

country dependence on oil import would

decrease thus secure greater domestic

energy security (UNEP).

A decade ago, renewable energy had been

considered potential yet there was no

large-scale deployment and

manufacturing—it was still only

concentrated in Europe, United States, and

Japan. Now ten years on, the lead of those

advanced countries in the renewable

energy global markets paved the way for

technology advances and market

expansion through early investment in

technology and policy design.

Deployment, manufacturing, and markets

of renewable energy—particulary in the

electricity sector—have expanded to other

regions.

By early 2014, at least 144 countries had

renewable energy targets and 138

countries had renewable energy support

policies in place, increasing rapidly from

48 countries in 2004. This expansion of

deployment is also supported by the

declining costs; with many renewable

energy technologies today cost-

competitive. As reported by REN21,

overall primary energy supply from

renewables in 2004 was 57.7 EJ per year,

while by 2013 the total supply had grown

to 76 EJ annually—in almost a decade,

there's an overall increase of 30%.

With a decade of rapid growth, renewable

energy technology is viewed not only as

tools for improving energy security and

mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Today, it also results in significant

investment volumes, in creation of jobs,

and in a significant reduction of renewable

energy cost due to economies of scale thus

opening new markets for renewable energy

technologies in developing countries

where new generation capacities are

urgently needed and where energy demand

is increasing.

MAJOR BLOCS

North American

North American region consists two

countries; United States and Canada.

North American is now the second highest

carbon emitter in the world with United

States is often noted as the most significant

contributor to greenhouse gasses

emissions. United States has ever tried to

invest more in renewable energy, just like

what European countries do, but however

this policy didn't work. Now United States

find a way to efficiently reduce its carbon.

The usage of shale energies from natural

gasses makes United States is the biggest

redactor in carbon emissions as well.

European Union

The EU Commission first issued its

community strategy to limit carbon

emissions in 1991. It focuses on limiting

carbon dioxide and improving energy

efficiency. Now EU is famous for its

emission-trading scheme, which became

the first and remains biggest greenhouse

gasses emission-trading scheme in the

world. With this major pillar of EU

climate policy, EU is setting a target to

reduce carbon emissions by at least 40%

below 1990 levels by 2030. EU also aims

to achieve at least 27% share for

renewable energy and at least 27%

improvement in energy efficiency by

2030.

Asia

Asia is the fastest growing economic

region in the world. Rapid economic

growth over the past 20 years happened

along with the increasing emissions of

greenhouse gasses. The predominant fossil

fuels usage, with renewable energy and

nuclear energy are accounted for less than

20 per cent of total energy use hasbecame

one of the reasons of increasing emissions

in Asia. In Asia itself, the bloc is divided

by developed country, such as Japan,

which able to reduce its emissions since it

has its own technology to switch to

greener energy options, and developing

countries who still working on achieving

economic welfare. For example, in India,

the government of India is focusing on

eliminating poverty and improving the

nation's economy first. Many countries in

Asia are still considered developing

countries and not compelled by globally

agreed emissions policy, even though

China has became the highest carbon

emitter nowadays.

Middle East

Middle East and North Africa countries

(MENA) hold over half the world’s

proven, recoverable crude oil and a third

of its natural gas reserves. By that, the

region has become heavily dependent on

the fossil fuels which created

unprecedented prosperity. The increasing

domestic consumption of energy sources is

said to be the factor to drive towards

renewable. Middle Eastern governments

have seen declining exports and, for some,

decreased petrodollars, which pose a risk

to their economies. Given the climatic

condition, MENA countries focus on the

solar power potential—though in reality,

investors have found significant barriers

hampering the development of renewable

energy field. Nevertheless, Middle eastern

governments have pledged to generate

more of their energy cleanly. By 2020,

Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia aim to

get 10% of their energy from sustainable

sources. The UAE has been less ambitious:

planning to use renewable sources for 7%

of Abu Dhabi’s and 5% of Dubai’s energy

by 2030.

Africa

The biggest challenge in sub-Saharan

Africa (SSA) is the population growth has

outpaced electricity access efforts. By the

end of 2013, only 43% of the SSA

population had access to electricity; which

leads to the increase in demand not match

expansion plans for renewable energy

across all sectors. In addition, unstable

policy frameworks and rapidly changing

renewable energy support schemes have

led to financing challenges as investors are

wary of regressive policies and the

negative effect they have on investments.

However, in the past 5 years, the number

of SSA countries establishing policy

frameworks increased, leading to

substantial increases in national renewable

energy markets. While we could say that

over decades the improvements on

renewable technologies are brought to

SSA region, there are still uncertainties—

the common one is lack of information.

The majority do not know the best

practices about successful renewable

policy schemes; which could be a major

barrier for renewables uptake.

SIDS (Small Island and Developing

States)

Most of Small Islands and Developing

States depend heavily on imported fossil

fuels for the majority of their energy

needs, specifically for transport and

electricity generation. Not only emitting

carbon, the cost of its infrastructure is also

high due to the scale and isolation. By

transitioning the energy into renewable

one, it would help SIDS address economic

and environmental challenges while also

creates job opportunities. Many of the

countries have taken step to energy

independence by creating partnerships and

innovative technical approaches, as well as

investments. In the time of urgency SIDS

would the first to receive impact as it has

the possibility to lose its land if sea level

were to raise making that will end in the

loss of homes for millions of its citizen.

FURTHER READING

UNEP Emission Gap Report

UNEP emission gap report has become a

parameter for countries and its pledge to

reduce their emission reduction target. The

aim of this report was to see and closer the

gap between emission level of each

country to reach the goal of 1.5oC

temperature. Based under the UNFCCC

COP (Conference of Parties) 15 in

Copenhagen it has been a main basis of

green economy scheme to ensure the

possibility of economy development while

still looking through the aspect of

sustainability and climate change. In the

end it is how countries pledge has been

carried out and how will it make

significant changes to reach these targets.

Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto protocol was established in Kyoto,

Japan on 11 December 1997 and entered

into force in February 2005. It is an

international agreement under United

Nation Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) to set international

binding emission reduction target. Sadly

back in 2011 one of the biggest emitter

that time which is United States of

America removed themselves from the

Kyoto process that ended in the removal of

the protocol completely in 2012.

Since the Kyoto protocol has become the

basis to reduce world GHG emission with

its three mechanism of international

emission trading, clean development

mechanism, and join implementation.

Under this protocol countries emission has

been monitored and record to carry out

countries emission reduction target.

Cancun Agreement

The Cancun agreement that reached into

action back in 2011 in Cancun, Mexico

has become an international guideline

made under the decision of involved

parties to address long-term climate

change action and concrete action to speed

up global response regarding climate

change. Established under UNFCCC,

Cancun agreement has become and

objective to reduce human-generated

greenhouse gas emission by encouraging

all participation by UN member state.

QARMA’s:

1. Has the current action made by

United Nations proven to be

effective? If not what else can

nations do to ensure the reduction

of carbon with the target of 2070?

2. Evaluating the success and failure

of past international actions, which

one has been proven more effective

to be re-implemented in the future?

3. What other action can be taken that

would be beneficial for both

develop and developing countries?

4. What step should be taken by

UNEP in order to ensure member

states commitment, considering

there is no binding legal instrument

in reduction of carbon emission?

5. Now that Sustainable Development

Goals(SDGs) are being discussed

as one of the potential framework

replacing MDGs, what is UNEP

stance as well as role in it should

be?

FURTHER READING AND

BIBLIOGRAPHY

UNEP 2014.The Emissions Gap Report

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UNEP press release: 19 November, 2014,

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Climate Change And Food Security: A

Framework Document. Rome: FAO of

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