Environment Assembly & Governing Council

Mentor: Mr Joseph Christie

Promoting responsible waste management in midst of global pandemic
Climate change-related planning & management in least developed countries & small island developing States
Sustainable management & protection of marine & coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts (Mauritius oil spill)

Head Chair

Seo Kyung (Sky) Yeom (UNIS Hanoi)

Honourable Directors and Fellow delegates:

Hi there! I am Sky Yeom and I am more than excited to be your head chair of the Environment Assembly and Governing Council. I am an eleventh grader currently attending the United Nations International School of Hanoi. This will be my sixth year of doing MUN and my first year chairing at a conference. I am both delighted and excited to chair a great conference and make sure it is a memorable experience for all delegates participating UNISMUN. For new delegates, don't worry if you are scared! My first experience of MUN was really embarrassing, but throughout the years I grew to like MUN and gain multiple skills just from a few conferences.

Through this conference I hope you all will learn, grow, have fun, and meet distinguished individuals with whom you will create lifelong bonds with.

With my best regards, I hereby implore you to challenge yourselves to the highest of your capacities as delegates and chairs, at every stage of preparation and during this conference and to take your passion for solving critical global issues further than just MUN. With that said, I am looking forward to seeing you all in November.

Deputy Chair

Hee Su Park (UNIS Hanoi)

Greetings directors, student officers, and fellow delegates! I am Hee Su Park, a grade 11 student at UNIS Hanoi. This is my fourth year in MUN, starting from grade 8 as a new delegate, to being part of the UNISMUN leadership team this year. It is my first year chairing, therefore I am extremely excited, and it is a great honor to serve as the deputy chair of the Environmental Committee. The topics discussed in the environmental committee are issues that are currently threatening our world security, such as the global pandemic and climate changes. Through well-constructed resolutions and fruitful debate, I look forward to seeing all of your interest and passion in these crucial topics. No matter how experienced you are, speak up, engage, and have fun! Although it might seem hard, I can assure you that it will be a rewarding and valuable experience in the end. Please don’t hesitate to reach out before, during, and after the conference, I will always be more than happy to help you!

Procedural Chair

Mai An Nguyen (UNIS Hanoi)

I am Mai An Nguyen, a grade 11 student from UNIS Hanoi. I have been at UNIS for 9 years now. This is my third year in MUN. I am a deputy head of admin, and I will also be chairing this year. I am very excited to be taking on the role as the procedural chair for the Environment Assembly and Governing Council, as I have a particular interest in the subject. The topics being discussed are not only very important, but are also ones that will open up insightful debates. I believe it is tremendously valuable to have discussions regarding sustainability during the Covid-19 pandemic because of the significant impact that these factors have in our society. With health, the environment, the economy and much more at stake, we must be aware of the possible decisions being made as a result of the global pandemic.

Faculty Mentor

As the student officers of the Environment Assembly and Governing Council, we were excited to meet our mentor, Mr. Christie, a biology teacher at UNIS to help understand topics based on the environment more thoroughly. At our first meeting I asked my mentors some questions and they shared final thoughts on the conference and topics.

We first asked about his background and overview of Mr Christie and he had taught and learnt biology and ESS for a very long time. He once was a tree arboriculturist during summer and he had taken environmental science in University and took an undergraduate in Biology. His main topic that he is interested in is Marine Biology and he went on to learn about genetics. Before teaching at UNIS he taught in Egypt and Dubai. Teaching was a good idea for Mr. Christie as he enjoys sharing information with others, especially when it is something that he knows about. The main reason he decided to learn about Biology and pursue a career related to Biology was due to the fact that biology was a strong suit for him. His mother was a researcher and he loves dolphins and used to train dolphins in Hawaii. Our mentor has just come to UNIS a year ago and this is his second year at UNIS. He believes that this is a good school and students are great and hardworking, as well as the campus being really good for both students and staff. Mr. Christie has never had any experience in MUN, however, he wanted to join for a few years, but he stated that it was very hard for him to get into MUN.

Next, we asked Mr. Christie for his thoughts and possible solutions on the topics that are going to be debated in the November Conference.

We first talked about Promoting responsible waste management in midst of global pandemics. Mr. Christie said that he enjoys the technical side of how you deal with responsible management, such as recycling, generating electricity, and other lots of progressive things on how we deal with it. He also mentioned that it is interesting for him to see how people use the waste management system to benefit themselves as well. “I think that it’s a cool topic as it is open to how you think of it. Bio ways, industrial ways, paper ways and so you can go crazy with it!” he said.

The next topic we talked about was Climate change-related management in the least developed countries and small islands developing states. Mr. Christie said that things to consider for this topic would be if countries already have existing planning, or if they need it. For small islands developing states, they would focus on sea levels, salinity, fires, and more. Just like the other topic, it allows you to consider if the planning is there, and if it’s not, the countries will have to make it.

We also talked about Sustainable management & protection of marine & coastal ecosystems to avoid signsdal with it as well.

Overall, he said that all of the topics are great considering the fact that it is so open to debate. “You’re gonna have a lot of good discussions,”

In the end, Mr. Christie stated that public speaking is probably the biggest value of MUN. Having the opportunity to speak in front of a big group of people is valuable. MUN is also very special for grade 11 and 12 students as you don’t have many opportunities to formulate your own idea and converse about it outside of MUN. He also had a message to the students attending the conference: Remember to be confident and Open-minded and good luck at the November conference..