We had to do a range to tasks in preparation for UN day: choose a country, research it and its climate change progress with our group, and then read through all the clauses in the UN Resolution to see which ones our country agrees with or doesn’t agree with.

I chose Spain because when researching climate change, I saw how much it has affected them. However, in terms of their progress compared to other EU countries, they actually haven’t achieved as much of their climate goals as others. (Plus they have a very vibrant and interesting culture).

On the day, I really only planned to read out our Position Statement (a quick speech you deliver at the beginning to show where you are at, and what you plan on doing on the day), and then I thought that Spain would just silently vote on things for the rest of the day. However, after hearing everyone’s Position Statements and opinions, I knew that as a country we had many thoughts on what everyone had just said.

During the day you get the opportunity to speak to other countries and get them to sign off on something called an Amendment, which you put forward to show any changes you want made to the clauses in the UN Resolution. As Spain, we disliked the wording of one of the clauses, specifically 2.5, which stated that all countries should work towards plant-based diets because farming is a large contributor to carbon emissions. Because of our culture, which eats pork as a celebration of freedom, and with meat being our largest export and therefore a major source of income, we knew it needed to be changed. We reworded this and included exemptions to any religious reasoning or for economic reasons and got 8 countries to sign, including the UK, Germany and the USA (who, at the last minute, pulled their support mid-vote).

Even after the USA disaster, we managed to get it through with a close vote, as well as speaking up many times during the amendment voting section with other amendments. The hardest part of the day was making sure what you were arguing wasn’t your opinion, but was what your country would do or say in the situation. In the end, as Spain we made a large contribution to the day, ended up learning a lot about how the UN works, learned tonnes about which international areas climate change is affecting, and also had a lot of fun while doing it.

TABITHA PLUMMER
Year 10