Model UN attends BMUN 2016

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On Friday April 22, three students in PHU’s Model UN attended Bulls Model UN at University of South Florida’s Marshall Student Center. Participators had only two weeks to prepare for the conference, with one day to fill out necessary paper work.

Leading up to the conference, students were to research their topic and their country, in order to write a position paper.

As it was Earth Day, the conference discussed topics such as Climate Change in United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and Ecological Terrorism in Security Council. PHU were the delegates for Denmark and Republic of Korea in UNEP, and Russia in Security Council.

During the conference, delegates in UNEP were met with a crisis in which a volcano erupted in Yellowstone National Park and a cloud of smoke was set to spread across the United States and Mexico in four hours. In response, a press release was drafted and had to be approved from everyone in the committee before being published.

UNEP also worked to bring about a transition to a green economy, facilitation of South-South cooperation, and manage harmful substances and hazardous waste. In the end only a transition to a green economy was addressed due to time constraints.

Five resolutions were drafted in hopes of bringing about such change, however, there was only one survivor which passed with an approval of one vote. The resolution suggested a tax be brought on countries who did not meet desired targets for CO2 emissions.

Other resolutions included a tax on the companies who were responsible for CO2 emissions and the building up of lower developed countries into a green economy with economic incentives for developed countries such as interest rates on provided loans.

In the end, PHU students Zoe Bison and Jennifer Hu were both awarded for Best Position Paper in their committees.

If one wishes to join Model UN the door is always open. The club meets biweekly on Thursdays in Ms. Vesey’s room in Building 19 from 1:45-2:30.