Environmental Commission s6

GeMUN 2016

Environmental Commission

Topic 3

Raising awareness in the international community of the importance of environmental sustainability in order to halt environmental degradation.

Sophia Mallucci

Index:

Definition of key terms
Introduction
Background Information
Major countries involved
Reliable useful links

·  Introduction

Environmental sustainability involves making decisions and taking action that are in the interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life. Environmental sustainability is about making responsible decisions that will reduce your delegation business' negative impact on the environment.

Businesses can potentially cause damage to all areas of the environment. Some of the common environmental concerns include but not limited to:

·  damaging rainforests and woodlands through logging and agricultural clearing

·  polluting and over-fishing of oceans, rivers and lakes

·  polluting the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels

·  damaging prime agricultural and cultivated land through the use of unsustainable farming practices

Environmental sustainability forces businesses to look beyond making short term gains and look at the long term impact they are having on the natural world.

·  Background information

Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the environment through consumption of assets, the destruction of environments and the eradication of wildlife.

There are a number of ways in which environmental degradation can work. In a classic case, resources simply become depleted. Air, water, and soil are all resources which are vulnerable to depletion through overuse, as are natural resources like minerals and oil deposits. Habitat pressures which force animals into a small area can also contribute to resource depletion, as the animals consume a high volume of material in a small area.

·  Definition of key terms

Environment:

1.  The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.

2.  (the environment) The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.

Sustainable : Conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.

Degradation : The condition or process of degrading or being degraded.

Pollution : the process of making air, water, soil, etc. dirty; the state of being dirty.

Overpopulation : The condition of being populated with excessively large numbers.

Landfill :The disposal of waste material by burying it, especially as a method of filling in and reclaimingexcavated pits.

Deforestation : The action of clearing a wide area of trees.

Biodiversity : The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.

Ozone Layer : A layer in the earth’s stratosphere at an altitude of about 10 km (6.2 miles) containing a high concentration of ozone, which absorbs most of the ultravioletradiation reaching the earth from the sun.

Livelihood : A means of securing the necessities of life.

·  UN involvement

In October 2007, at the meeting of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), the Executive Heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes committed to move their respective organizations towards climate neutrality, and developed theUN Climate Neutral Strategy.

Specifically, the Executive Heads of UN agencies committed to:

·  Estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of UN system organizations consistent with accepted international standards;

·  Undertake efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

·  Analyze the cost implications and explore budgetary modalities of purchasing carbon offsets to eventually reach climate neutrality.

The UN Climate Neutral Strategy highlights the advantages of harmonization. A common approach across the UN system brings greater impact, lowers transactions costs, facilitates practical action on the ground through the development of common tools, ensures comparability of data across organizations, and pooling of results for better-informed decisions and knowledge-sharing.

Greenhouse gas emissions of UN organizations and what we are doing to reduce them

As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), (held on the 30th November 2015 in Paris), launches itsClimate Neutral Nowinitiative, which encourages and enables organizations, companies and individuals to measure, reduce and offset their emissions direct with UN-certified climate credits.

A significant effort has been underway in the UN since 2007, when organizations approved the UN Climate Neutral Strategy, which commits all UN organizations to measure, reduce and then offset any greenhouse gas emissions that cannot be avoided. The UN has been measuring its greenhouse gas emissions from facilities and travel since 2009 and in 2013 emitted at least 1,7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

On 12 December 2015, the participating 195 countries agreed, by consensus, to the final global pact, the Paris Agreement, to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. In the 12-page document, the members agreed to reduce their carbon output as soon as possible and to do their best to keep global warming not over 2°C, in the goal of reducing global warming.

·  Bibliography

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-environmental-degradation.php

http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/17/86/371

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/it/spellcheck/inglese/?q=turism+industry

http://www.un.org/en/sections/general/un-and-sustainability/index.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-environmental-degradation.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference