global warming position paper

*DELEGATE :* NEHA TALWAR

*COLLEGE :* JESUS AND MARY

*COUNTRY :* REPUBLIC OF KOREA

*COMMITTEE :* ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

*TOPIC :* GLOBAL WARMING AND THE WORLD ECONOMY


Global warming has become a serious issue of the international community causing concern to the environment on the earth and posing a grave threat to existence and activities of human beings.

South Korea, one of the seven partners of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate along with Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan & the United States, has agreed to work on climate change in ways
that promote sustainable economic growth. The South Korean government is strengthening the country's emissions standards to make them comparable to those of other countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and is promoting the use of electric vehicles, collecting tolls on high-traffic roads, raising downtown parking fees in major South Korean cities, renewable sources of energy like methane biogas & sea-weed research. South Korea is one of the 174 states which have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aimed at combating global warming

In the Summit of the most polluting countries held in Sydney in January 2006, South Korea along with Australia, China, India, Japan & US pledged to develop cleaner technologies but refused to set targets for reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. It also agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the long term at the two-day climate change meeting of the world's 16 biggest economies at White House on Sept 2, 2007.

South Korea was also one of the 180 representative countries in the Bali Climate Change Summit held in December 2007 which culminated in the adoption of the Bali roadmap, the launching of the Adaptation Fund as well as decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation. Government's failure to set target greenhouse gas discharge levels is due to the difficulty in setting reliably gauging emissions, which would require a system to measure emissions at each factory, every building, and from each vehicle, which is slated to be in place by 2008.

South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak has devoted himself to meet the
twin challenges of global warming and the looming energy crisis making South Korea the world's first sustainable economy based on renewable energy, new and efficient technologies, and targeted government support. South Korea's stand is totally in tune with the firm conviction it has, to combat the adverse impact of the green house effect.