Castelhano 1

Subject: Global Climate Change

Committee: U.N. General Assembly
Country: Kingdom of Norway
Delegate: Paige Castelhano

Over the past century, the earths yearly temperatures have warmed, and weather
conditions have altered. Global climate change is becoming an increasingly alarming issue
around the world. There are clear indications of climate change in every part of the globe. One
example being that the highest recorded temperatures have all occurred during the last two
decades. Much of todays climate change is caused by humans through pollution, mainly due to
the burning of fossil fuels. Therefore, it is important that we recognize and improve global
climate change.

The Kingdom of Norway is considered the leader in climate change preparedness,

despite their inability to prevent it fully. The country is a strong advocate for the elimination of
climate change, and has made great progress towards limiting their contributions towards it.
However, Norway is still far from reaching their goal of becoming carbon neutral, a term that
describes something which has no positive nor negative impact on the production of carbon
dioxide. Norways climate and emission of greenhouse gases are currently increasing still,
although the government has hopes to change this in the future.

Norway is one of the largest oil exporters in the world. The countrys extraction of oil
had emitted approximately eighty-three percent more greenhouse gases in 2015 than just
twenty-five years earlier, in 1990. Overall, the country produced 53.9 million tons of
greenhouse gases during 2015. Additionally, the countrys citizens consume three times more
electricity than the average European. The effects of their consumption are clear, as the overall
temperature change from 1900-2008 was 33.62 Fahrenheit (calculated using yearly
temperature means).

Norway was one of the first countries to ratify the Paris Agreement, which is a treaty
that promises every country that agrees to it will aim to reduce their contributions to climate
change. Norwegians have made many improvements to their lives in order to stay true to the
agreement. In an effort to improve their energy consumption, more than ninety-eight percent of
Norways residents have chosen to produce electricity using a renewable source. The most
common source is hydroelectric power, which ninety-five percent of residents rely on to
provide them with electricity. This would reduce much of the countrys greenhouse gas
emissions since non-renewable energy is responsible for sixty percent of current emissions.
Furthermore, citizens are encouraged to purchase electric rather than gasoline powered vehicles
in order to limit their greenhouse gas emissions; the government offers a tax incentive to people
 Castelhano 2

who make the switch. This has proven to be successful as Norway has over twenty-five
thousand electric powered vehicles in use now. Using domestic energy changes such as these,
Norways Parliament strives to become climate neutral by the year 2050. They also hope to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by thirty percent by the year 2020, and by ten percent more
by 2030.

During a United Nations conference in 2012, representatives of Norway announced the

formation of the Initiative for Clean Energy in Developing Countries. This initiative wishes to
make renewable energy more affordable for developing countries, in order to further improve
earths climate. The country also agreed to contribute to implementing new technologies for
carbon capture and storage. This system extracts carbon dioxide from the air and stores it
somewhere where it cant escape and return to the atmosphere, commonly underground. The
carbon capture and storage method would allow us to improve the air quality while reducing
climate change in other ways, helping us heal the earth faster.

Although the Kingdom of Norway has progressed greatly in reducing its contribution to
global climate change, greenhouse gas emissions from anywhere in the globe can spread very
far, causing changes in temperature across the entire globe. Norway wishes to eliminate climate
change as much as possible by creating new global laws, and methods that will make the
prevention of climate change more efficient. The global laws that Norway would launch with
the help of the United Nations would limit the maximum amount of non-renewable energy that
a developed country would be legally allowed to use to fifty percent in 2030. After this date,
these countries should continue to reduce the amount of non-renewable energy they use
indefinitely. Developing countries should still strive to reach this goal by converting to
renewable energy sources, however they may need funding from wealthier countries since most
of these sources can be very costly. A second global law that Norway would include would be a
worldwide ban of deforestation. Deforestation and land use cause pollution, and they contribute
to eleven percent of total CO2 emissions. If these worldwide laws and others similar to them are
passed, climate change may become a less threatening issue.

Recently, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, withdrew from
the Paris Agreement, so his citizens could continue mining and burning fossil fuels,
subsequently polluting the earth. The government of the Kingdom of Norway believes that
President Trumps decision was ill-minded and will result in further damage to our earth. They
disapprove of his uneducated reasoning since workers in the fossil fuel industry would need an
earth to extract fossil fuels from in order to perform said job. However, if humans continue
emitting fossil fuels with non-renewable energy sources, the earth will eventually overheat,
creating many issues for humans such as droughts or rising sea levels.
 Castelhano 3

MLA Citations

Mcsweeney, Robert. "Deforestation in the Tropics Affects Climate around the World, Study

Finds." Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 June 2017.

"Climate Change and the Environment." Norway in the UN. Norges Portalen, n.d. Web. 06 June

2017.

"Climate Change in Norway." Climate Change Post. Centre for Climate Adaptation, n.d. Web.

02 June 2017.

"Emissions of Greenhouse Gases." Statistics Norway. Statistics Norway, 15 Dec. 2016. Web. 06

June 2017.

"Global Warming in Norway." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 May 2017. Web. 02 June

2017.

"ND-GAIN: Norway Leads World in Climate Changes Readiness." Notre Dame Global

Adaptation Index. Notre Dame University, n.d. Web. 06 June 2017.

"Norway." Agenda 21 (2012): n. pag. United Nations. United Nations. Web. 06 June 2017.

"Overview of Climate Change Research." Global Climate Change: Research Explorer.

Exploratorium, n.d. Web. 06 June 2017.