Esha Bhandari and Yasmeen H.A. for BBC

The first day of UNIDO—Clean Energy vs. Continued Usage of Fossil Fuels

Esha Bhandari and Yasmeen H.A.

During the numerous moderated caucuses in the UN Industrial Development Organization, delegates from various countries engaged in heated debate regarding the issue of utilizing cleaner energy worldwide. Some countries like Finland and Guatemala strongly approve of the promotion of green energy, while others such as Venezuela stand on the complete opposite side of the issue. The compelling caucuses revealed each and every country’s unique ideas about a resolution to the issue, but despite the early stages of the conference, some are skeptical if a solution will ever be reached, considering the varying opinions of each nation.

Finland stands out as a generous nation in the sense that, as a developed country, it is willing to aid developing countries in jumpstarting their usage of clean energy. They have suggested a “big brother” or free market approach, consisting of a laissez-faire system that keeps the government as uninvolved as possible. Finland defends its ideas by claiming that this specific approach has significantly helped Greece, although went on to clarify that there would be restrictions put in place in this free market to avoid corruption and avert disaster. Several countries seemed interested in Finland’s claims, including developing countries such as aforementioned Guatemala. Naturally, there were also several other countries, developed and developing alike, that strongly disagreed with almost all of Finland’s suggestions. Venezuela, for example, was among the loudest dissenters.

While most countries believe that developing and developed countries must cooperatively come up with a plan to implement clean energy, Venezuela is one of the few countries that feels that this is unnecessary. This developing country is utterly opposed to monetary support from developed countries and feels that they can “survive on [their] own.” Venezuela has stated that the need for a switch to clean energy is due to climate change, and has blamed developed countries for being the source of a majority of the global pollution today. To Venezuela, most developing countries can survive by their own means through relying on their abundance of natural resources. Nations in agreement with Venezuela include Germany and Indonesia, who both recognize the need for clean energy, yet feel that developed countries should extricate themselves from the issues of developing countries. Despite its outspoken views, Venezuela has yet to propose a solution to the matter.