In partnership with the 2009 University of Melbourne Festival of Ideas

Overview

The final round of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations will be held in Copenhagen in December 2009. This meeting represents the last chance to form a post-Kyoto international climate change agreement.

The Governor of Victoria invited the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) to organise a Model United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change, entitled Kyoto to Copenhagen: Addressing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The one-day conference, held on the 24th of June, brought together leaders from government, industry, corporate and environmental sectors to debate the key issues that will be discussed at Copenhagen. The participants in the conference adopted the role of a member of a UN Country delegation and debate from the perspective of their assigned country.

Outcomes and Objectives

To date, discussions reported in the Australian Press have dealt principally with State and Federal approaches to climate change. The issues of how negotiations proceed to broker a global agreement have not received the priority or coverage they deserve.

The Conference involved all participants in the complexities of the climate change debate and demonstrated the importance of dialogue, diplomacy, negotiation and participatory democracy whilst promoting a global outlook. Climate change will not be achieved by the actions of any one country.

Global agreements are critically important to the long-term health of the planet and its very survival as a habitable environment for mankind and the biodiversity required for life. Whilst global agreements reached within the context of the UN are not legally binding, they are morally binding as they carry the weight of the world’s opinion, a factor that can result in very real effects at the national level.

The resolution debated at the Model Conference addressed many of the issues that will be raised at the Copenhagen Conference; through participant representation of different countries on these issues, the simulated Conference promoted awareness and imparted knowledge of the challenges and complexities involved in tackling this issue at a global level, a challenge that falls not only on the shoulders of the delegates at Copenhagen, but on us all.

Photos from the conference are now available.

View the Original Resolution and the Amended Resolution.

Read Patrick O'Beirne's account of "Being ‘France’ at model UN conference on climate change".

View The University of Melbourne's 'Visions Video' podcast of the conference, or download the mp4 file here.