Download Name: Liz Charles and Will McHenry (head delegate) Delegation

Name: Liz Charles and Will McHenry (head delegate)
Delegation: Iran, Islamic Republic of
Committee: United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)
Topic: Climate Change
Like many other nations, Iran has become seriously concerned with the issue of climate
change, sometimes called global warming. There are many different ways to go about solving
these problems, and Iran is attempting to look at the big picture to help bring climate change to a
minimum.
One way that Iran is doing this is by reducing CO2 emissions from automobiles. Tehran,
the capital city of Iran, has identified air pollution as one of the major environmental problems
that Iran is facing. It is estimated that there are about 1.4 million vehicles on the roads of Iran,
which consume approximately 2 million tons of gasoline and fossil fuel per year. This is
releasing an overwhelming amount of carbon dioxide into the air, severely polluting it. GEF is
sponsoring a project called Tehran Transportation Emissions Reduction Project whose basic goal
is to reduce greenhouse gas emission from automobiles. Before this project began, Iran had a
terrible public transportation system, paired with low fuel prices and older engine designs, Iran's
dependency on fossil fuels was creating a serious environmental problem. The GEP installed
emission-monitoring equipment, along with adding a lot of discussion about topics like emission
inventories, urban planning, vehicle fleet, fuel, and traffic management. The project was
successfully completed.
Another way that Iran is trying to reduce the effect of climate change is by participating
in case studies that assess forests and tree resources and evaluate the role of planted forests, trees
outside forests in forest landscape restoration under a range of environmental, socio-political and
economic conditions in low forest cover countries. There were five other countries in the North
and East Africa region that were chosen to participate in this study: Ethiopia, Mali, Namibia,
Tunisia, and Oman. Globally there has been an increased awareness of the need to plant more
trees in areas where the landscape has been destroyed. Not only do these trees provide resources
economically and for local people, but they also come with many environmental benefits. These
case studies called the Tehran Process were used to share strategies and lessons learned about
integrating national forest programs.
Overall, Iran is working hard to stop global warming from becoming a problem that all
the generations that follow us will have to deal with. They are addressing the problem right now
in many different ways, and thus far their efforts have been working out very well. Through
working with its surrounding nations and nations around the world, Iran is doing a great job of
taking climate change seriously.
Topic: Renewable Energy
It is readily apparent that Iran’s main energy source at present is oil, due to the abundance
in the region. For the majority of the years in the past, Iran has depended almost solely on oil to
provide energy. However, in recent years, Iran has recognized the importance of adopting
renewable energy practices, due to the limit of oil consumption, as well as the environmental
impact of using oil for energy. Iran has adopted the Kyoto Protocol, and therefore has affirmed
its belief in protecting the environment through the reduction of energy consumption as well as
the investigation and research of alternative, more sustainable and renewable energy sources.
As of recent, Iran has made progress in the field of renewable energy. The region itself is
extremely rich in renewable energy sources, but the former focus on oil and petroleum caused
these opportunities to be neglected. Rich sources primarily include solar, wind, geothermal and
biomass. Since 2003, the Organization for Renewable Energies (SUNA), established in 1995
under the Ministry of Energy’s (MOE) Deputy for Energy Affairs, is responsible for the
development of renewable energies in the MOE. It operates under In 1990, renewable energy
sources made up only 0.96% of total primary energy sources. In 2003, renewable energy sources
made up 2% of total primary energy sources. Mohsein Bakhtiari, head of the MOE’s New
Energies Department, expresses hope that renewable energy sources will make up 1% of
domestic energy needs over the next 5 years.
Specifically, Iran is focusing on harnessing wind-power. SUNA’s head, Yusef
Armoodeli, states that experts are preparing and charting a “wind-atlas” to determine the
country’s power production capabilities. Many wind farms are still in development and
construction, but officials hope that wind-energy production capacities will continue to grow
(they are currently at around 50,000,000 kW/h per year).
Along with wind-energy, Iran is open to the development of solar power, as well as
geothermal and biomass. Over the past 15 years, research in solar energy has resulted in the
development and establishment of a few small- and medium-scale electricity generation plants,
powered via solar and geothermal energy, as well as the development of solar water heaters and
solar rural baths. The Sabalan Geothermal Power Project in Meshkinshahr is currently in
production, and experts are also charting biomass atlases throughout the region. The Sabalan
Geothermal Power Project is projected to have a potential of 250 MW of power. The first plant
is expected to produce 55 MW.
Iran depends mainly upon private-sector financial and technical support to develop and
establish energy production centers from renewable sources.
Sources:
http://www.helio-international.org/reports/pdfs/Iran-EN.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4688984.stm
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=39924
http://www.lahmeyer.de/e/units/ge/ps_ge5_e_240247_ir_geothermal_2007_08.pdf
http://www.energybulletin.net/2929.html