More News Updates =)
Hey delegates,
Hope everything is going well with school and your MUN work. Things at BMUN are getting very hectic as we all eagerly prepare for the conference. I recently ran across some more articles and publications that I hope will be of interest to you.
- Ban Ki-moon urges US business leaders to support “green” economics
- Official website for the Feb 11th and 12th climate change debates
- Press release regarding the Feb 11th and 12th climate change with a live webcast
- World Economic Situation and Progress website with an updated 2008 world report
- Updated publication regarding development strategies, specifically look at the trade policy notes
That’s all for now. Best of luck!
Ariana Afshar
February 11th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hi this is Sarah (aka China)!
In refrence to the press release in which Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon called upon the start of “green economics,” what immediately came to mind was the enormous impact the corporate world has upon the environment. Especially in today’s society where the riches of globalization have allowed for companies to go multi-national, what can the international community do to ensure that the buisness world adheres to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles? I know that in China, the government weilds a large amount of control and influence over its domestic companies and can take immediate and decisive action to ensure that they follow environmentally sustainable practices, but the real problem lies with private and multi-national corporations. Ban Ki Moon mentioned financial incentives to corporations and a large part of that would be issuing tax-breaks, are there any other more decisive actions nations can take in regards to private and/or multi-national corporations? I am not familiar with economic theories (in my government class we have only touched briefly on Keysian and Trickel-Down) and I was curious as to what sort of relationship governments have with private companies. I know that a laissez-faire capitalist market is the best for private companies, but doesn’t nationalizing corporations produce a bigger benefit for governments and their people?
February 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Hey, this is Jocelyn and Louis representing Thailand. After reading the article describing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s support of “green” economics, the main quote that really caught our attention was that the global investment of $1.9 trillion would be “seed money for a wholesale reconfiguration of global industry.” As China stated, large corporations are essential in this process, but at the same time this statement made by the Secretary-General was simply too vague. How much will be needed to implement a global change? How will we know when the amount is enough? We must find a way to obtain funds but at the same time ensure that we won’t be putting all the pressure on corporations alone. Thailand’s economy depends greatly on manufacturing, so we would like to see a solution that would obtain funds but at the same time make sure the corporations won’t turn around and raise prices in countries.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
The idea of simply allowing private organizations free reign so to speak int he world ecnomic affairs is something that has been dreaded by economists for years considering the tendency to supercede human rights in favor of increased proffits and productivity. That was the initial reasoning behind creating the Global compact; to hold these private companies and corporations accountable for their actions in the international marketplace. However, Thailand is right in that being too vague as well. The most logical answer is to hold the coporations accountable in their country of origin, but this would generally lead to these companies leaving these states in favor of less regulated ones. Thus, a possible solution would be to expand the global compact to include these countries? Possibly? Yeah? The answers are out there, you just have to question the means enough to find them.