When I played my role in the policy exercise, I felt like many countries were very stingy with their money and willingness to change the peak year of their country.
· How did your reaction, comments, feelings; and shifts (if any) in negotiating positions evolve across the rounds and discussions? At first I didn’t really understand exactly what we were deciding upon but once other groups began discussing options with us I was able to grasp the idea that as China it was inevitable that we would produce a lot of CO2 emissions and minimizing them was important but the development of our country and its people was also very important.
· How did your group change their ideas? At first we were giving $10 billion and had our peak year very late in 2040 but we changed these to $13 billion and 2030.
· What prompted that change? The US table came to talk to us and convinced us to do this and said they would match us. This lowered emissions and gave money to India so they could also do the same.
· In the end, do you think that emissions can be cut? Realistically I don’t think we could get it to the point we got it to in class which was and increase of 2.3 degrees Celsius. Many countries are way more stingy with their resources and policies than we were.
· What were the major costs and barriers to implementation of participant proposals? Being China, our main barriers were that afforestation and spending a lot of money meant less farm land and resources for our people who are already struggling. This made us not make as much change as other countries.
· How can we catalyze change in the US? We need to go to our administration to catalyze change because large amounts of CO2 emissions cannot simply be fixed in a singular household.
