UNEA is hard at work this afternoon as they hash out various working papers and the varying ideas within them. Two opposing blocs, the Realistic Renewable and Economics Cooperation Operation (RRECO) bloc and the Net Green bloc, shared some of their views with the Chicago Tribune.
The RRECO bloc is comprised of nations such as China, Russia, India, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and more. During their interview, they expressed the desire to understand all sides of the issue, both from developed and developing countries.
The bloc released the following statement: “We believe that our bloc is probably more realistic financially because it doesn’t necessarily focus on completely stopping the use of fossil fuels immediately because that’s a very one way approach …So, we’re focusing on incentivizing the use of renewable energy but also not affecting them detrimentally for using oil resources… We definitely think it’s important to acknowledge why we have been trying to move toward renewable energy for so long and the reason it hasn’t worked is because it isn’t sustainable at all and we are trying to move towards a sustainable future. For instance, Syria is a very solar heavy, wind heavy country, that’s going to work really well for us, but that’s not going to work for Russia… Many of the smaller countries are heavily dependent on fossil fuels and by cutting that entirely you’re ruining their economy and some of the western nations want to take advantage of that and that would mean that the smaller countries would have to rely on the larger powers… This is going to make developing countries dependent on large countries as they are dependent on fossil fuels now. If we uproot these developing countries economically they are not going to have the ability to make the hefty investment that is renewable energy sources.”
Opposing them stands the Net Green working paper, composed primarily of Uruguay, the United States, and Honduras. They have been debating for quite some time with RRECO regarding funding and other resources.
Statement from the representative of Uruguay: “Our paper is specifically about giving developing countries an edge into this climate resilient and net zero world. Our entire thing is about helping small nations… I think they are taking a situation and expecting it to go one way and making assumptions by which we continue to operate, understanding exactly what our paper is. We take underdeveloped countries into account. Honduras, one of the undeveloped countries, is actually a sponsor and a presenter and has taken charge of some of our most important clauses. … So, I think that they are misrepresenting our bloc and making assumptions and I don’t think that’s what our bloc means anyway… One of our main clauses is about funding, especially funding underdeveloped countries through developed countries using a grant system. This would be present internationally as something that helps countries that are especially in danger and countries that are trying to move towards turning into a net zero country.”