With the climate and the current American administration being the way that it is, learning about what we can do to help prevent global warming and climate change is more important than ever. On Saturday the 25th of January, EMU held a simulation of a global climate summit, similar to the ones held by the United Nations to decide policies on climate change and allocating resources to countries that need it to start being more sustainable. Six delegations from the United States, the European Union, India, China, Other Developed Countries, and Other Developing Countries were assigned based on the number of people at the simulation, with two to five people in each delegation. I was assigned to the Chinese delegation, which was looking to help others, but at the lowest cost possible.
One of the main things that struck me was how much detail there was for this simulation. Each country was given a dossier about their countries’ unique situation and what we needed from the other countries. We would try to negotiate to get what we wanted and other countries would negotiate with us to get what they wanted. Compromises had to be made. The goal of the Chinese delegation was to donate as little money as possible to the global fund and try to get other countries with lots of money, like the United States, to give more money. Out of the countries represented, we had one of the higher GDPs, so most countries were trying to get more money out of us. However, something I didn’t realize was how much would go into our negotiating tactics. Our main argument to not donate as much money was that we have so many people in the country; China has one of the highest populations in the world. Thus, we have a relatively low GDP per person, despite the total being rather high comparatively.
Between each round of negotiations, each delegation would pledge a certain amount of money and time to making things more sustainable in our respective countries. Then, the moderator of the event would plug the numbers into a calculator designed for this event that would give us a projected value for how high temperatures would rise over the next few decades as a result of our pledges. The goal of the summit was to keep the planet from warming a total of more than two degrees. By the end of the event, I think we had gotten it to 2.6 degrees over normal, which is higher than we were supposed to go, but compromises had to be made unfortunately.
It was made very clear that our efforts to strike a deal with other countries had failed. The moderator made sure to let us know that we had failed in our efforts, and that because of this, global warming would proceed at unprecedented rates. He made it a point to really show us how important these deals between countries are and how much is at stake during these climate summits. While he was a little harsh towards us when we didn’t meet our goal, it did really emphasize how much this means in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, it was a really good experience, a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and an important experience for anyone who wants more education on how these decisions are made. In fact, I’d recommend this type of simulation to anyone who wants to keep living on this planet, as global warming is slowly but surely catching up with us. If I had to change one thing about the event, I do kinda wish there were more people who went. More people means that more delegations can take part in the simulation, and allows for a better understanding of what all goes on at a climate summit and a better experience for everyone involved.
