Chemical Transport Standards

Chemical Transport Standards is the first resolution sponsored by Norderia to reach the UN floor and Xth Free Trade resolution. The resolution created one new UN committee, the United Nations Chemical Transport Commission (UNCTC) and an international standard hazardous chemical code known as the United Nations Hazard Rating. The UNCTC is responsible for creating an international list of hazardous chemicals and assigning a series of 4 hazard codes to any chemical on the list. The resolution also charged the UNCTC with compling a list of all hazardous materials and then defining these materials using a 12-digit indentification number. The main task of the UNCTC is to develop a set of safety standards for the transport of any of the hazardous materials the committee lists. The principal argument in favour of this resolution was that by standardizing international proceedures related to the transport of dangerous substances, that trade between UN members would be increased.

Resolution history

Draft proposal

Norderia approached the United Nations in July 2006 shortly after joining the organization as a member following its attempt to repeal the Patients Rights Act.[1], [2] The basic idea proposed by Norderia was to have the United Nations develop a uniform international code to mark any container with hazardous substances that travel across national borders. Given the large number of nations in NationStates, Norderia argued that not only would such a system increase international trade by allowing these substances to pass through more nations quickly, but that any standard would need to account for a large number of substances and be easily understood in many nations.

Several active UN member states immediately voiced their support for the idea, and within days a working group including representatives from Gruenberg, Mikitivity, and Yelda was formed to begin the process of writing a draft proposal. Following the standard advice from the UN Secretariat on how to write a proposal, the working group started by discussing what would be the most appropriate proposal category for the basic idea.

Telegram campaign

Chemical Transport Standards was first submitted to the proposal queue in early August 2006, where it immediately recieved over 40 approvals without any telegram campaign.[3] It went through a few changes following several of its earlier submissions to the proposal queue, but it was not until Norderia settled upon the final proposal text that the nation organized an ad hoc committee to help with an organized telegram campaign. Several nations, most notably Yelda, Ceorana, Gruenberg, and Discoraversalism, joined the ad hoc committee. Since Norderia was busy with domestic issues in September, the next campaign did not begin until October. This final version of the proposal was submitted to the proposal queue twice before it achieved a quorum of UN Delegate approvals on Oct. 10 2006. By this time a two other proposals were also in the resolution queue, thus the proposal sat in the resolution queue for 10 days before reaching the UN floor.

UN floor debate

Resolution text

WHEREAS chemicals are a widely traded commodity;

WHEREAS no current standards exist for the identification or transportation of chemical substances;

WHEREAS the variety of nations in the UN may have myriad means of identifying and transporting chemical substances;

The United Nations;

BELIEVING that a lack of standards regarding the identification and transportation of chemical substances is a severe safety hazard;

1. ESTABLISHES the United Nations Hazard Rating (UNHR). The UNHR is a rating for common hazards of chemical substances. The UNHR includes the following information:

i) A flamability rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small flamability risk, and 4 indicates a high flamability risk;

ii) A health risk rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small health risk, and 4 indicates a high health risk;

iii) A reactivity risk rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small reactivity risk, and 4 indicates a high reactivity risk;

iv) A special notation to indicate specific risks, such as, but not restricted to an exceptionally high reactivity to water, or for strong oxidizers;

2. ESTABLISHES the United Nations Chemical Transportation Commission (UNCTC). The following are the UNCTC's duties:

i) To compile a list of, and define hazardous materials;

ii) To enumerate the list of hazardous materials, using the Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), using twelve digits for each substance. These 12-digit numbers will be known as Chemical Identification Numbers (CIN);

iii) To prescribe minimum requirements for the safe transportation of hazardous materials;

iv) To compile a list of all other chemical substances and assign a CIN to each. A new CIN is to be assigned to differing isomers and isotopes of substances with identical chemical makeups;

v) To determine the UNHR for the substances as described in sections 2i and 2iv;

3. MANDATES

i) That UN member nations comply with the UNCTC's requirements and employ the UNCTC's CINs when transporting substances over international borders and international waters;

ii) That containers containing hazardous materials are clearly marked as such, on all faces of the containers. These markings will include the UNHR and CIN for the substance held within the container;

iii) That, under non-emergency circumstances, no substances shall be placed in a container that is marked for another substance;

iv) That, under non-emergency circumstances, no containers shall be vandalized, or mislabeled to misrepresent the substances contained within, or their potential hazard risks;

v) That UN member nations inform non-member nations that shipments that do not comply with the above four clauses may be turned away in the interest of the safety of the receiving nation;

4. EMPHASIZES that this Resolution does not mandate any changes to the current intranational systems being used by member nations;

5. ENCOURAGES member nations to implement the measures set forth by this Resolution in their own national transportation systems.

Votes For:10,477

Votes Against:2,973

Voting Ends: Wed Oct 25 2006

Voting analysis

A poll was attached to the UN Floor Debate thread, asking UN Delegates, UN Members, and Non-UN Members if they supported, opposed, or were indifferent to the resolution. This poll was the first time that a UN forum poll also allowed Non-UN Members a more formal way to have their support or opposition to a UN resolution registered with the organization.

Similar to most other resolutions, the support for Chemical Transport Standards was slightly greater in the overall UN vote than in the UN forum. However, compared to many other resolution debates, the difference in percentages between to the two votes was relatively small.

Although the resolution was adopted by a supermajority by the overall UN vote and by UN members, only 64% of the UN Delegates surveyed supported the resolution.

Gameplay analysis

Additional materials

• Chemical Transport Standards UN floor debate
• Chemical Transport Standards ad hoc proposal campaign committee
• Idea: Standard Chemical Transport Codes UN draft proposal discussions
• UN Timeline
• Index of UN Resolutions
• UN Committees