Declare climate emergency in India: Model UN Conference

Hyderabad: St. Peter's High School located at Bowenpally near Secunderabad organised a Model UN Conference at its premises on Thursday. Over 200 students who acted as delegates representing 25 countries including USA, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Turke participated in the second edition of the Model UN Conference said T. Alphonse Reddy, Correspondent of St. Peter's High School in a press note.

Prof K Purushotham Reddy, a well-known academician and environmentalist was the chief guest and T Bala Reddy, Chairman of the St Peter's group of educational institutions presided over the closing conference. Ch Tarini Arya donned the role of UN Secretary-General; Dheeraj Adithya, President UNO and M Preksha Mythri, Youth Envoy at UN General Assembly. The Model UN Conference has three different sessions—Meeting of the General Assembly; UNESCO Meeting and Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO). Speaking at the closing of the four-hour-long Model UN Conference, Chief Guest and well-known environmentalist said global warming is real. Climate change is playing havoc with people and nations. And he urged Indian Government to declare a Climate Emergency immediately. It is the time for the Indian government to take corrective measures on a war footing basis to combat climate change.

Preksha Mythri, a UN Envoy at the Model UN Conference also demanded a Climate Emergency. Adding further she appealed to the citizens of the globe in general and heads of UN member states in specific to help UN sustain. It was disheartening for me to learn from news reports that the UN is exhausting peacekeeping cash reserves to such an extent that the organisation may not be able to pay its staff. Future belongs to us. We need PEACE. Let us support the UN in its efforts by funding it sufficiently, she informed.

The UK became the first country to declare a climate emergency. In fact, it was the first country in the world to do so. Following it, several local governments all over the world have done. Nearly 20 countries have already done so far. Elaborating further, Purushotham Reddy said, declaring a climate emergency it helps the government to bring out new laws for the effective implementation of them to protect Mother Earth. It will help mobilise resources and speed up protection to the ecology, people, species, and ecosystems. Long preparation of three months had gone into MUN Conference. All the problems were identified by students. The school has 2100 students, out of which 1000 were groomed for the event. 200 proved their mettle with better performance and earned their place in this Model UN Conference shared T Aruna Reddy, Director and Dr Suvarna, Principal of the school.

20 teachers acted as mentors for the programme stated the two school leaders. These mentors include Radhika, Sridevi, Loreita, Rohini, Insiya, Priya, Kalaharika, Shirisha, Vijay Paul Reddy, Niveditha, Shruthi, Geetha, Annie and Laxmi.

The UNI is approaching its 70th Anniversary next year. The Model UN Conference discussed besides the daunting global issues and challenges, it also discussed challenges of its existence such as outdated structure, unwieldy organisation, increasing demands, unreliable funding and political horse-trading and others. Under this background the second edition of Model UN Conference was organised by St. Peter's High School at its premises to mould students to be a true global citizen informed T. Alphonse Reddy, Correspondent of St. Peter's High School.

At the end of the conference, outstanding delegates in each committee were recognized. The Best Delegate in each committee was especially appreciated. Thousands of middle school, high school, and college students across the country and around the world participate in Model United Nations, which involves substantial researching, public speaking, debating, and writing skills, as well as critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership abilities.