Difference between revisions of "Mitigation of Large Reservoirs"

Revision as of 12:16, 9 August 2005

Resolution History

Overview

This resolution is the fourth resolution sponsored by Mikitivity to be adopted by the United Nations, and like the other three Mikitivity resolutions, the majority debate on the resolution focused not on the content of the resolution, but rather on the length of the resolution itself. Interestingly though this resolution is longer than the average NationStates United Nations resolution, it is clearly not the lengthiest resolution.

This resolution is also important because in addition to the UN Secretariat pinning the topic in order to focus the debate into a main discussion thread, a forum poll was attached to the debate. By comparing the results of this poll with the official UN vote outcome, the recurring question: "Are UN forum debates representative of UN voting trends" can be addressed.

The proposal originally began in late June 2005, when Mikitivity was talking to Frisbeeteria about changes in NationStates demographics and the steady decline in nations and UN members. Frisbeeteria suggested that some of this seasonal decline might be associated with the large number of educational / classroom based regions in NationStates. It was then that Mikitivity decided that it would be interesting to take a complex real-life international issue and attempt to create a resolution so that the educational / classroom regions could later debate and discuss the subject of sustainable development.

Proposal Campaign

The proposal campaign for this resolution started by Howie T. Katzman's presentation of a first draft, titled Anadromous Fish Protection, to other International Democratic Union ambassadors on Jul 2 2005. The basic idea was met with enthusiasm by the region, which is known for its international advocacy of sustainable development and humanitarian aid issues. Grosseschnauzer and the visiting ambassador from Ecopoeia, but suggested that the title of the proposal be changed, pointing out that some ambassadors might not know what anadromous meant.

The proposal was renamed and revised before being circulated to the North Pacific, the East Pacific, the West Pacific, Anticapitalist Alliance, and Texas. After a week in which the draft proposal received very few comments on these regional forums, Katzman then submitted a new draft titled Mitigation of Hydroelectric Plants to the United Nations forum.

The new draft then received comments from Myopia and Yelda, both of whom presented compeling arguments that the proposal should include language to indicate that one of the negative impacts associated with large-scale reservoirs is the production of greenhouse gases. At first Katzman was a bit wary about including the provision, but upon reading information those two governments provided to Mikitivity the Myopian amendment was added with enthusiasm. Mikitivity continued to make minor edits to the proposal as well as requested additional comments, but none were forthcoming.

On Jul 27, the proposal was submitted to the proposal queue, and Mikitivity began a moderate telegram campaign, focusing on just contacting nations the government thought to be political allies. The proposal failed to achieve quorum on its first pass through the proposal queue, so Mikitivity again asked for any constructive comments on the proposal. Based on questions from UN Delegates during the first telegram campaign asking if the proposal impacted all reservoirs, Mikitivity changed the name of the proposal to Mitigation of Large Reservoirs, to emphasis that the mitigation measures suggested in the proposal applied primarily to larger reservoirs.

The second telegram campaign was joined by several of the UN Delegates that had endorsed the proposal on its first pass. Riding on the popularity of Ecopoeia's Freedom of Conscience resolution, proponents of the proposal were able to find enough UN Delegates that felt that the issue should be put before the UN for a vote and achieved over 155 endorsements by the proposals last day in the queue.

UN Debate

Resolution Text

The NationStates United Nations,

RECOGNIZING that many large watersheds and river systems cross international boundaries, and thus represent a shared resource between riparian and coastal nations;

OBSERVING the international nature of the economic benefit to ocean and freshwater commercial fisheries of abundant and healthy anadromous fish populations, such as salmon;

AWARE that salmon represent an important source of Omega-3 fatty acids, though farmed salmon tend to have higher concentrations of dioxins and PCBs than wild salmon;

NOTING the desire to increase the maximum electrical output of existing hydroelectric plants by increasing the height of reservoirs or to design new hydroelectric power plants in order to meet growing electricity demands;

FURTHER NOTING that electrical power generation is often one of several uses of the water stored in multi-use reservoirs;

BEARING IN MIND that the operation of large-reservoirs alters the unimpaired (i.e. natural) flow, water temperature, nutrient availability, and sediment load in the water downstream of the reservoir, which has led to the decline in many native species' populations;

CONCERNED that methane emissions from decomposition in reservoirs could contribute substantially to global warming;

CONVINCED that in order for hydroelectric power to be of net beneficial use, that the environmental and commercial impacts of reservoir releases must be managed or mitigated in a sustainable way;

1. APPROVES of continued research into various large-scale reservoir mitigation measures including the design and operation of temperature control devices, construction of fish passage structures (such as fish ladders), use of pulse flows during migration and other critical periods, and maintenance and restoration of wetlands (which are important nutrient sources);

2. CALLS UPON nations to investigate and promote water supply and electrical demand reduction strategies, such encouraging energy efficient equipment, telecommuting and alternative work weeks, and operating large-scale industrial equipment during off-peak electrical demand periods;

3. SUGGESTS that adaptive management techniques such as timing reservoir releases to periods that are beneficial to both riparian wildlife and power users can minimize some of the impacts associated with large-scale reservoir releases;

4. RECOMMENDS the restoration of flood plains and seasonal wetland habitats, including designing flood bypass areas and seasonal agricultural easements;

5. FURTHER RECOMMENDS that these wetlands and flood bypasses be used to offset the need for dedicated flood storage in large multi-use reservoirs; and

6. EXPRESSES ITS HOPE that other alternative energy sources will be considered as supplements or alternatives to hydroelectric power generation, with the understanding that a sustainable power supply needs to be diverse and manageable in order to accommodate long-term economic stability.

Votes For: 8,949

Votes Against: 4,807

Implemented: Mon Aug 8 2005

Additional Materials

• Mitigation of Large Reservoirs UN Floor Debate
• Draft: Mitigation of Hydroelectric Plants Draft Proposal Discussions
• Anondromous Fish Protection International Democratic Union Discussions (1st Draft)
• UN Timeline
• United Nations