Model UN is a popular activity for those interested in learning more about how the UN operates. Hundreds of thousands of students worldwide take part every year at all educational levels. Many of today’s leaders in law, government, business and the arts – including at the UN itself – participated in Model UN as students.
The United Nations Model UN Programme aims to build and maintain strong links between the UN and Model UN participants across the globe. It does that through guides and workshops, which teach students how to make their simulations more accurate; by visiting Model UN conferences and sharing firsthand knowledge of what the actual UN is like; and through encouraging Model UN clubs to take real action to support UN values and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Challenge…
Resolution 1836 (2022): The Question of Climate-Induced Conflict
The Security Council,
Recalling the determination of the peoples of the United Nations, to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,
Recalling that the prevention of conflict remains a primary responsibility of States, and further recalling their primary responsibility to protect civilians and to respect and ensure the human rights of all individuals within their territory, and reaffirming the responsibility of each individual State to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity,
Reaffirming the need to adopt a broad strategy of conflict prevention, which addresses the root causes of armed conflict and political and social crises in a comprehensive manner, including by promoting sustainable development, poverty eradication, national reconciliation, good governance, democracy, gender equality, the rule of law and respect for and protection of human rights,
Concerned by the climate change-related conflicts in Northern Nigeria, Kenya and Sudan, in particular in the Sahel region, where desertification is causing conflict from a reduced availability cultivated land because of human-induced desertification,
Noting that many developed nations have been the key emitters of greenhouse gas emissions resulting in climate change,
Further Noting that climate change has had a disproportionate impact on developing nations,
Reaffirming the goal of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to achieve the “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”,
Disturbed by a lack of a binding international agreement for action on climate change,
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
- Requires all States listed in Annex I* to the UNFCCC must reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from their 2000 levels on or before 30 June 2050 and further requires that those States must reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 15% from their 2000 levels on or before 30 June 2030.
- Requires all States not listed in Annex 2* of the UNFCCC must reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from their 2000 levels on or before 30 June 2030.
- Calls for the creation of the United Nations Office for Climate Change and Environmental Degradation (UNOCCED) to:
- Monitor the progress of all States to achieving the targets outlined in paragraphs 1 and 2 above,
- Enter states without prior permission to assess and seize evidence to determine the progress of States in achieving targets outlined in paragraphs 1 and 2 above,
- Report to the Security Council with any evidence of non-compliance and recommend sanctions on States found to violate paragraphs 1 and 2 above,
- Decides that States that are found to violate the emissions targets outlined in paragraphs 1 and 2 above shall become subject to diplomatic, economic and other sanctions as this Council considers appropriate under Article 41 of the UN Charter,
- Mandates that any State affected by Climate Change Induced Conflict be paid reparations for the damages of the Climate Change Induced Conflict. These reparations shall be paid by all States according to their individual percentage of their collective greenhouse gas emissions that have been emitted since 2000,
- Decides to remain actively seized on the matter until the emission reductions outlined in paragraphs 1 and 2 above are achieved.
*Annex I states: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom & United States of America.
Annex 2* states: China, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan & Egypt
