Haganum Model United Nations
Gymnasium Haganum, The Hague
Research Reports
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change
Compensating LEDCs in order to promote
sustainable development
4th, 5th and 6th of March 2016
Haganum Model United Nations 2016| 4th of March – 6th of March 2016
Forum:
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Issue:
Compensating LEDCs in order to promote sustainable
development
Student Officer: Roos Neven
Position:
Deputy President
Introduction
Sustainable development has become an important part of our society. As time goes
on and climate change becomes more noticeable, it seems clear that we should change
something. But how do we achieve sustainable development when our world is so divided?
During the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 2015, it
became clear that sustainable development is not an easy goal to achieve. For most
Western countries, there is the advantage of a lot of knowledge, a healthy economy and, of
course, not that much industry. This makes creating a more sustainable society relatively
easy for them. Their population is higher educated and thus more aware of the problems that
come with not being sustainable. This higher-educated population also creates the
opportunity of fresh ideas and solutions. It is safe to say that it is easier for these countries to
achieve sustainable development.
The reason why compensating Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) are
specifically named in this issue, is because in LEDCs it is less easy to apply sustainable
development. There is not only more industry in some of the LEDCs, the so-called “low-wage
countries”, they also have less money to spare on things such as sustainable development.
One could argue that, because countries that are now considered part of the Western
world attributed quite a lot to the environment problems that we face today, they should
compensate LEDCs in order for sustainable development to rise and because the LEDCs
simply do not have that capacity.
Definition of Key Terms
LEDCs
LEDC stands for Less Economically Developed Country. LEDCs are countries that
have not developed as much as More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs), an
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example of a MEDC is The Netherlands, or the whole Western world for that matter. An
example of a LEDC would be any South American Country. LEDCs tend to focus on primary
industry, such as farming, whereas MEDCs focus more on secondary or tertiary industry.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development can be defined in many ways, but the most common way to
define sustainable development, is by quoting a piece from Our Common Future:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it
two key concepts:
-The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which
overriding priority should be given;
- The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the
environment's ability to meet present and future needs."
This definition states that sustainable development means to still grant ones needs, but to do
this without affecting the future of our planet in a bad way.
Background Information
It is clear that we have to change something. Sustainable development has rightly
become an important goal. At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) of 2015, it was also a point discussed. On the United Nations (UN) agenda for
2030, several sustainable development goals have been set. These have been set in
September 2015, when the UN gathered to create new sustainable development goals.
These goals include erasing poverty and making sure there is no hunger anymore, but they
also call for climate action and protecting, restoring and promoting life on land.
During the UNFCCC in Paris, the Paris agreement was made. This is essentially a
resolution, that all parties attending agreed on and that was drafted during the UNFCCC of
2015. This resolution is divided in articles. In the Paris agreement, quite some attention is
directed to both developed and developing countries. An example is article 9, clause 1:
1. Developed country Parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing
country Parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of
their existing obligations under the Convention.
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It is clear that developed countries, or MEDCs, are expected to support and help
developing countries, LEDCs.
The difference between LEDCs and MEDCs
The terms LEDCs and MEDCs have not been created for nothing, as there is a big
difference between these countries. This difference has been created a long time ago.
Because of this difference, LEDCs are simply less able to follow the sustainable
development goals or to adhere to the Paris agreement. For example, the Paris agreement
states that the rise in temperature since pre-industrial times, should be kept well below 2º.
This goal would be easier to attain for MEDCs, for a number of reasons.
First of all, industry has mainly moved to LEDCs, which means that MEDCs have less
to improve at the moment. They might as well help other countries, since the environment is
a worldwide problem. Another reason for MEDCs helping out LEDCs, is the fact that their
industry is mostly adapted from MEDCs. They have had their industrial period, thus creating
cars, computers, etcetera. The global warming as we are dealing with it right now, comes
from this industrial period and the pollution caused by MEDCs. During that period, there was
not so much attention to sustainability and the way industry affected the environment, since
there was simply not enough knowledge. Nowadays, we do have that knowledge and there
have been a lot of attempts to stop the climate change, such as the UNFCCC. Since MEDCs
have contributed to global warming in their industrial period, it has been put forward as a
solution that they now compensate LEDCs. Their help would then be seen as some sort of
debt that would be paid off. The last difficulty in LEDCs adapting to sustainable development,
is their economy. Working sustainable is still more expensive and especially LEDCs do not
have the money or expertise for that.
These are the reasons that MEDCs compensating LEDCs has been brought forward
in the Paris agreement.
Major Countries and Organizations Involved
The United Nations (UN)
The UN is a very important player in this issue. Not only because this is where the
UNFCCC was set up, but also because it is a place where LEDCs can make themselves
heard and thus raise the possibility of MEDCs supporting them.
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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The UNFCCC is an UN organisation, set up in 1992. This organisation is specifically
meant to stop climate change. With 196 parties, it has near universal partnership. The
UNFCCC holds annual Conference of Parties (COP). COP21 was held in 2015, in Paris.
Striking is that during this COP21, there was not only a lot discussed concerning the actual
climate change and how to counteract that, but there has also been spoken about MEDCs
and LEDCs and their relation to counteracting climate change. For the first time in over 20
years, a legally binding and universally accepted agreement came out of this COP, called the
Paris agreement. This agreement not only states that the rise in temperature should be kept
lower than 2 degrees, but also devotes a lot of attention to LEDCs. In this agreement, it is
stated that MEDCs should support LEDCs in order to help promote sustainable development.
Timeline of Events
Date
Description of event
January 1979
First world climate conference
3-12 June, 1972
UNFCCC is established
16 February, 2005
The Kyoto protocol is created
30 November – 11
December
COP21 is held, the Paris agreement is created
Relevant UN Treaties and Events
There have been a lot of important attempts to solve the climate change, but only the Paris
agreement is aimed so much at LEDCs.
•
The Paris agreement, 12 December 2015, (FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1)
Possible Solutions
In order to achieve sustainable development, it seems that the whole world will have
to work together and support each other. Every single country will have to either be willing to
give help, or to accept it. That support could come in the form of money, but this money
would then also be given to countries that may not use it in the right way. It seems more
efficient to either send money to a specific purpose, for example to clean the polluted air
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coming from factories. In that way, one country could simply donate this to another country
and make sure the money is used for a good purpose. Another good option would be setting
up an UN organisation, or a department of the UNFCCC that monitors donations from
MEDCs and sets up projects in LEDCs. In this way, the money would also be directed to a
good case and the department could even make sure that donations will be divided evenly
over all countries in need of these donations. A disadvantage of this could be that MEDCs
might be less willing to make donations, if they can not monitor their own money. A solution
for this would be obligating countries to make donations. The difficulty in this, would be
drawing a line between countries donating and those receiving. There might even have to be
set a bar for a minimum amount of money donated per, for example, year.
A different way of compensating LEDCs would be compensating them with
knowledge. The population of MEDCs is simply higher educated and could therefore provide
LEDCs with new ideas and solutions. The only question is, if this would be enough help.
Even though expertise is much needed, we do not know if it can be carried out when there is
not enough money.
Perhaps a combination of money and expertise would be the perfect solution, money
to actually carry out solutions, and expertise to make it possible for these countries to not
need help in the future.
Bibliography
The Paris agreement, 12 December 2015, (FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1)
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/paris/
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/finale-cop21/
http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en/key-dates/
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/frameworks/parisagreement
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?page=view&nr=1021&type=230&menu=2059
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/development/contrasts_development_r
ev2.shtml
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5931800&fileId=
S0376892900016805
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/frameworks/parisagreement
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