BMUN LXIX UNFCCC

Berkeley Model United Nations LXIX starts TOMORROW! We hope that all of you are ready to dive into discussing the international waste trade tomorrow evening and meet your fellow delegates!  We have been hard at work to grade your papers and prepare for conference! If you have not yet received your position paper score back, please let us know!

For Topic B in this committee, a problem touched upon is the complex world of intellectual property and the World Trade Organization (WTO). A lot of delegates have proposed interesting solutions in their position papers on this. There are definitely a lot of barriers to making the proposals a reality. Remember, you should be thinking about the feasibility and scope of the UNFCCC's powers! Linked here is an interesting article about intellectual property and the WTO in relation to COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Mlungis Mbele/AFP/Getty Images

  Capacity building is incredibly difficult but a crucial part of clean technology deployment. Not only are there huge infrastructure considerations but there are also market considerations on how viable technologies are. An example of the importance of infrastructure can be found in United States energy prices. Without subsidies, the prices of generating a megawatt hour of energy through large scale solar and wind is comparable with energy generated by fossil fuels. The crunch point is that the transmission of this energy and its storage is really difficult.  Renewable energies like wind and solar are incredibly site-specific and often in locations where current transmission infrastructure does not exist. The cost to set up this transmission would significantly increase the per megawatt hour cost of  renewable energy generation.  Furthermore, wind and solar energy are only available when there is wind and sun which are not always the times in which energy is demande...

When drafting international environmental agreements, nation states must be aware of how these solutions will be funded. The UN has various institutions in place that deal with funding. Background World Bank/IMF World Bank - The World Bank is an international organization founded by the United Nations (UN) with the purpose of financing projects that promote the economic development of its member states (Britannica).  The International Monetary Fund was created by the UN to stabilize international economic cooperation and balance currency exchange rates (Britannica). Both institutions support the “structure of the world's economic and financial order” and “concentrate their efforts on broadening and strengthening the economies of their member nations” (IMF). However, there is a main distinction between the two. While the Bank is a development institution that aims to end extreme poverty in UN’s client countries, the IMF is a cooperative institution that attempts to strengthen the cu...

 As more information about Texas' fatal and disastrous week with its energy system, the evidence points more and more towards the importance of infrastructure when it comes to thinking about energy distribution.  Texas is the #1 producer of wind energy in the United States and alone is #5 in the world (for reference, California generates less energy than states like Iowa and Oaklahoma) . As the news stories came out, some pundits pointed to this large wind energy generation as the reason for the entire grid's failures. However, a closer look at Texas' infrastructure may tell a different story. Texas is mostly energy independent from the rest of North America meaning that it cannot easily draw energy generated in surrounding states.  Louisiana borders Texas and faced similar extreme weather conditions but did not face the same extreme energy shortages.  Similarly, for committee, it is important for delegates to consider the larger infrastructural impacts of your prop...

 Hi all! I hope you all are well-rested and ready to jump into committee this weekend! Our dais has a few tips to share regarding resolution writing, and what we hope to see in the solutions you all bring to the table. IF you have ever participated in BMUN before, this framework may sound familiar: be sure to brush up on these five tools to consider when drafting up language for committee! Great resolutions can contain many different details and writing styles, but it is important to always have specifics to make sure your solutions are conveyed as best as possible. Below is BMUN's S.M.A.R.T. framework for resolutions, geared towards creating working papers that highlight solutions to the best of their ability. Consider using each of these five elements when in committee! S- Specific: make sure your solutions include as many details as possible - there is no such thing as an irrelevant point in debate! Consider every perspective on the topics, and try to make sure there are no ling...