RIMUN 2014 STUDY GUIDE: UNITED NATIONS
ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME (UNEP) – RESPONSE
TO WORLDWIDE COASTAL EROSION AND BURDEN
SHARING TO CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Table of Contents
ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE....................................................................................................................... 3
RESPONSE TO WORLDWIDE COASTAL EROSION..................................................................................... 4
BURDEN SHARING TO CUT CARBON EMISSIONS .................................................................................... 5
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ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established following the
Stockholm Conference/United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. Ever
since, the organization has been working on a wide range of issues related to the protection of
the environment, including the renowned 1987 agreement on the protection of the ozone
layer, the Montreal Protocol. It was also responsible – together with the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) – for setting up the International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) in 1988, an intergovernmental body responsible for conducting scientific
assessments of the effects of climate change and whose reports have gained much attention
in recent years. Its mandate is “(…) to coordinate the development of environmental policy
consensus by keeping the global environment under review, and bringing emerging issues
to the attention of governments and the international community for action.”1
At this year’s RIMUN, the UNEP committee will discuss a possible coordinated global
response to worldwide coastal erosion. The participating countries in the committee are:
USA, Russia, China, France, UK, Poland, Maldives, Burundi, Ivory Coast,
Namibia, Malta, Brazil, New Zealand, Mauritius, Croatia, Guatemala,
Venezuela, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Norway, and Iceland.
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UNEP News Centre: United Nations Environment Programme Upgraded to Universal Membership Following
Rio+20 Summit
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RESPONSE TO WORLDWIDE COASTAL EROSION
BACKGROUND
The rise in sea levels caused by global warming will – and are already at present – cause
coastlines to recede as a result of erosion. For example, the British government predicts that
rising sea levels around the British coast will lead to an erosion of around 67 meters, based on
a model assuming current climatic conditions. However, this number could rise to a
staggering 175 meters by 2100, depending on changes in climate.
The coastal erosion that is going on worldwide has devastating effects on wildlife, as coastal
areas contain diverse and productive natural habitats important for human settlements, land
development and local subsistence. More than half of the world’s population currently lives
within 60 kilometers of a shoreline, and this figure could rise to 75 percent by the year 2020.
The small island developing states (SIDS) are especially vulnerable to a continued rise in sea
levels, due to their dependence on marine resources. Furthermore, many of the world’s poor
are crowded in coastal areas, and coastal resources are also vital to many indigenous groups.
These two factors both illustrate the urgent need to address this issue.
CURRENT SITUATION
Despite national, sub-regional, regional, and global efforts, current approaches to the
management of marine and costal resources have not always proven capable of achieving
sustainable development, and as a result coastal resources and the coastal environment are
being rapidly degraded and eroded in many parts of the world.
Delegates debating this topic should focus on coastal states and how experts of the
international community can assist in responding to coastal erosion. Some measures coastal
states may undertake, with the support of international organizations, to maintain biological
diversity include survey of marine diversity; inventories of endangered species and critical
coastal/marine habitats; establishment and management of protected areas; and the support
of scientific research and dissemination of its results. The delegates will devise the most
modern solutions to this issue within the framework of the UNEP.
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RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
Protection from Coastal Erosion
Technologies for Climate Change Adaption - Coastal Erosion and Flooding – a UNEP report
in collaboration with the University of Southampton
European Commission – on the EU’s Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
BURDEN SHARING TO CUT CARBON EMISSIONS
BACKGROUND
There are numerous aspects and dimensions to the issue of global warming, but one of the
major ones – and most frequent sources of contention within the international community –
is that over the question of responsibility. Should the more industrialized countries of the
North bear a greater responsibility for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, or should this
burden be shared more or less equally with the still industrializing South? This debate has
been part of broader debate on climate change from the onset, as the principle of “common
but differentiated responsibilities” was outlined in the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in
1997 and is still the major international treaty that regulates global emissions of greenhouse
gases. However, many industrialized countries argue that circumstances have changed since
then, as an increasing number of developing countries have become major polluters
themselves, most notably China, which is today the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse
gases.
CURRENT SITUATION
The question of who should bear the brunt of the burden of cutting emissions in order to
combat climate change has been one of the major reasons that no binding agreement after
the Kyoto Protocol has been agreed upon. The climate conferences in Copenhagen and
Cancun did not manage to fulfil expectations, and did not result in a renewal of Kyoto or the
creation of a replacement. The most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Durban was slightly more successful in the sense that it was agreed that Kyoto will continue
to be binding until a new agreement is made. However, not all original parties are willing to
continue their commitment – for instance, Canada has now left the treaty. In addition to this,
there was agreement on the Durban Platform, which stresses that developing countries like
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China and India will be a part of a legally binding treaty to be negotiated by 2015. This
therefore opens the door to developing countries taking more responsibility to combat
climate change. It is now up to the delegates to debate about the extent to which developing
countries should assume responsibility in this matter.
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
International Public Policy Forum Debates - on who bears the responsibility for combatting
climate change
Greenhouse Gas Emissions - policy brief from the think-tank Brookings Institution
Green Climate Fund – the website of the GFC, a fund set up after the 2010 conference in
Cancun, transferring money from developed to developing countries to take measures to
combat climate change
Kyoto Protocol
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