UNEP Faces Passive Delegate Engagement

By Johanna Rai, Chief Reporter of UNEP, TES NEWS

27 August 2024

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under TESMUN-2024 started the discussion on the agenda “Significant Exacerbation of Global Warming by Burning of Fossil Fuels and Environmental Impact of Mining”. With the chair’s announcement of the committee’s initiation, the committee started on the first day of the second session with GSL.

The first delegate to give the GSL on the matter was the delegate of France(Aryana Ranjeet) followed by the delegate of the Philippines(Nipuna Raj Pandey), UK(Pema Doka Gurung), USA (Nilima Khadka), Nepal(Grishma Shrestha) and Afghanistan(Nishchit Shrestha).

Although the GSL was running smoothly, the delegates seemed unassertive and uninterested regarding the matter nor did the delegates were eager to raise questions to the speakers. This further led to the passive atmosphere of UNEP. 

 Due to the submissive nature of the UNEP committee, the committee began the moderated caucus. A majority of votes were obtained by the delegate of France (Aryana Ranjeet), and the topic “Environmental Impacts Phasing out Fossil Fuels and Illegal Mining” passed. 

However, while the committee was discussing the moderated caucus, suddenly a crisis entered the committee. The committee’s flow was disrupted when the delegates faced difficulties regarding the crisis, which led to the Dias panel elaborating and assisting the delegates accordingly about the crisis.

Consequently, the delegate of Iran (Niken Maharjan) was able to gain a good point stating, “How can France accuse Iran of terrorism when the US illegally exports firearms inside Iran even after 9/11 was conducted from Afghani countries?”

Furthermore, the presidential speeches started with the delegate from China (Sanskar Pokhrel) followed by the delegate from South Africa (Marcus Thapa). During the presidential speech of the delegate of South Africa(Marcus Thapa), the delegate suspended the delegate of China (Sanskar Pokhrel) for disturbing him at the time of his presidential speech for 2 minutes.

 UNEP's committee hopes to break through its early inactivity and make significant progress on the crucial agenda items of global warming and environmental impact now that it has a newfound sense of purpose. The committee's ability to effectively convert discussion into workable ideas will be determined in large part by the outcomes of the upcoming sessions.