MUN DEBATE TRAINING ROLES: 1. Chairperson () 2. Germany 3. France 4. Italy 5. United Kingdom 6. Spain 7. Ireland 8. Belgium 9. Portugal DEBATE SCRIPT: Will the house please come to order? Good morning delegates, today we will be debating on the question of The link between the increase of energy efficiency and the reduction of pollution, congestion and adverse health effects. The sets debate time of 90 minutes on this question. Are there any delegates wishing to take the floor at this time? United Kingdom, you ve been recognized. The delegate of United Kingdom has the floor and therefore goes to the front of the room. In this case, she simply wants to make a speech concerning the topic in general. Thank you,. My dear fellow delegates, we are all concerned with the suffering our planet Earth is undergoing because of human activity. We consume far too much energy and it is time for us all to stop and consider the consequences of our actions. It is not only the Earth that is threatened, but our own lives as well. More and more people today have serious health issues directly or indirectly caused by the pollution we produce. It is therefore not only necessary, but urgent that we take immediate and concrete steps to increase energy efficiency and reduce pollution. Thank you. Thank you, delegate, are you open to any points of information? A point of information is a question to the speaker. It can be an honest inquiry, a way to support the speaker or a way to point out (or insinuate) that what the speaker has said is wrong or in some way not interesting Yes, this delegate is open to any and all points of information. 1
The delegate of the United Kingdom has opened herself to any and all points of information; are there any such points on the floor? Spain 1, you ve been recognized. Spain stands up. He must remain standing until the speaker has finished answering his question. SPAIN SPAIN Thank you, delegate, for that inspiring speech. The delegate of the United Kingdom clearly stated that we must take concrete action to reduce pollution. What kind of action is the delegate in favour of? There are many things we can do to reduce pollution, of course. One solution is to make users of cars and other fossil fuel-run vehicles pay higher taxes in urban areas, thereby encouraging them to favour public transportation. Thank you. Spain sits down. Are there any other points on the floor? Belgium. Does the delegate also envisage supporting actions that would do something about transportation? Could the please ask the delegate to rephrase her question? Could the delegate of Belgium please rephrase her question? No direct dialogue is allowed between delegates. In this case, United Kingdom has not understood s question, which was not very clear. She would like the delegate to rephrase, but must go through the Does the delegate believe that public transportation can also be targeted as a way to reduce pollution, and if so, how? Of course, public transportation needs to be made accessible and affordable, but it should also be made more energy efficient. This delegate would certainly support a clause that tackles this issue. Thank you for your point. Will the delegate please yield the floor to the? We yield the floor to the. Yielding the floor means that the speaker returns to his or her seat (and is therefore no longer the speaker.) Notice that the delegates speak in 3 rd person; use of I is out of order and delegates must refer to themselves as this delegate and to other delegates as the delegate 2
FRANCE The floor has been yielded back to the. Are there any other delegates wishing to take the floor at this time? France you ve been recognized. This delegate has submitted a clause, is that in order? That is in order. The delegate of France has submitted a clause which reads: Suggests that governments of member states invest in their road infrastructures in an effort to decrease congestion; The DEPUTY- should type this clause so that it is projected on a screen for everyone to see France, you have the floor. FRANCE Honorable, esteemed fellow delegates, the delegate of France feels strongly that one of the problems causing pollution is the fact that there are too many cars and trucks and not enough road space for all of them. We believe that our governments must do something about this, and building more roads is one of them. More roads means more space for our cars. More space for our cars means that there will be less congestion, and less congestion means less pollution. Therefore, France encourages all of you to vote in favour of this clause. Thank you, and we are open to 1 point of information. Thank you, delegate. The delegate of France has opened herself to one point of information, are there any such points on the floor at this time? Portugal, you ve been recognized. Does the delegate of France understand what she is saying? If we increase the number of roads, there will therefore be an increase in the number of cars on the roads and therefore increase the amount of CO2 emitted into the air. Doesn t the delegate agree that this will increase pollution, and not decrease it? FRANCE No, this delegate does not agree. The pollution will just be spread out, so the air will in fact be cleaner. Motion to extend points of information! 3
At least one delegate would like to ask another point of information to the delegate of Germany, but only 1 point was allowed. It is therefore possible to simply shout out from where you are sitting Motion to extend points of information. It is up to the to decide what to do. There has been a motion to extend points of information; however, the delegate of France expressly opened herself to one point. This motion will therefore not be entertained. Will the delegate of France please yield the floor? FRANCE We yield the floor. We will now move into closed debate on this clause. The sets debate time of 5 minutes in favour and 5 minutes against. Are there any delegates wishing to take the floor? Motion to move directly into voting procedure! Objection! There has been a motion to move directly into voting procedure; however, since there has been an objection, the will not entertain this motion. Are there any delegates wishing to take the floor to speak in favour of this clause? Ireland, you have the floor. IRELAND Fellow delegates, I ask you to read this clause carefully. The would like to remind delegates to speak in the 3 rd person IRELAND This delegate apologizes. IRELAND invites all of you to re-read this clause. It is simply asking for governments to invest in road infrastructures in order to reduce congested areas. We all know that inhaling condensed amounts of CO2 emissions is deadly. We also all know that many people have to travel into cities by car in order to get to work. Yes, we need more and better public transportation, but this will not happen overnight. In the meantime, we need our roads to be more accessible, and therefore money must be spent on them. As the delegate of the United Kingdom mentioned earlier, we can also place a tax on users of cars in congested areas to encourage them to take public transportation 4
when possible. But in the meantime, we cannot punish those who must breathe in polluted air. Furthermore Will the delegate please come to his closing remarks? (The feels the delegate has been speaking for too long) IRELAND Furthermore, there are going to be more and more cars on the roads anyway as our populations increase. Therefore, we encourage all delegates to vote in favour of this clause. We yield the floor back to the. IRELAND does not want to answer any points of information, and so immediately yields the floor. IRELAND has yielded the floor. We will now move into time against this clause. Please lower your placards. Delegates should not raise their placards to speak until the asks them to. Are there any delegates wishing to take the floor to speak against this clause? Italy you have the floor. Delegates, this clause is ridiculous! I, sorry, this delegate cannot even begin to say how backwards it is to pour money into road infrastructures when that same money could be used to tackle the real and immediate issue of energy efficiency and the reduction of pollution. We repeat, THE REDUCTION OF POLLUTION!!! Making the roads less congested is only going to encourage more people to use them and therefore to create even more pollution. We of Italy invite all delegates to vote against this clause. Is the delegate open to any points of information. 3 points. The delegate of Italy has opener herself to 3 points of information. Delegates, please put your placards down until asked to raise them. Are there any such points on the floor? Belgium, Spain and Germany, you have been recognized in that order. 5
Does the delegate not agree that bettering road infrastructures will only increase traffic? This point is obviously made to show support for the speaker; this is perfectly in order; however, this particular point doesn t bring anything of interest to the debate. Therefore, try to limit this type of point, or at least try to include a new element into your point to give it some content (see the point made by Germany below). Yes, the delegate fully agrees. SPAIN As we speak, cars are lined up on motorways across Europe, causing tremendous amounts of pollution. Does the delegate not believe that by reducing the congested areas we will also reduce concentrated amounts of pollution? No, this delegate does not agree. One of the reasons there are so many cars on the roads is because the existing roads and insufficient public transport have contributed to putting them there. Focus must be on improving public transportation, not improving roads. GERMANY Does the delegate not agree that we are here today to discuss energy efficiency and that therefore we should not be talking about improving our roads, but rather how to reduce the amount of energy we consume? This delegate thanks the delegate of Germany for his point. Yes, we do believe that we need to focus on energy efficiency and that working on roads is using the wrong energy in the wrong place. Will the delegate please yield the floor? So yielded Closed debate time on this clause has elapsed. We will now move into voting procedure on this clause. The would like to remind all delegates that no abstentions are in order; you must vote either in favour or against. All delegates wishing to vote in favour of this clause, please raise your placards now. Thank you, you may lower your placards. All those voting against, raise your placards. (pause as votes are counted) Thank you delegates. With a vote of in favour and against, this clause has passed/failed. Please make the necessary changes/do not make 6
any changes to your paper. We will now move into open debate on this question. Are there any delegates wishing to take the floor? Belgium, you have the floor. Open debate means that delegates have 2 choices if they wish to take the floor: they can speak about the topic or the paper in general, or they can submit a clause. United Kingdom at the very beginning of the debate, made a speech about the topic. France submitted a clause. Closed debate means that any speeches must be made either in favour or against the clause or the entire resolution. There has been closed debate on the clause submitted by France; first in favour (when Ireland spoke) and then against (when Italy spoke) This delegate has submitted a clause, is that in order? : The delegate of Belgium has submitted a clause. That is in order. The amendment reads: Promotes the implementation and/or improvement of public transport systems with the purpose of increasing fuel efficiency and reducing air pollutants released per capita by: a) Implementing buses, trams and trains that run on electricity where applicable, b) Increasing the availability of rentable bikes where applicable; Delegate you may proceed. Many of you have already mentioned the need to improve our public transportation system. But we also need to make the same more fuel efficient. That is why this delegate has submitted this clause because it encourages governments to use electric trams and buses when possible, but it also encourages the use of bicycles which, as we all know, need only human energy to run. Therefore, delegates, vote in favour of this clause. Is the delegate open to any points of information? Yes 7
Are there any such points on the floor? Seeing as there are none, will the delegate yield the floor? We yield the floor GERMANY Motion to move directly into voting procedure! Objection There has been an objection. Delegate, please rise and state your objection This delegate would like to submit an amendment to the clause That is in order. Does the delegate have the amendment? If so, please approach the. Portugal wants to make a change (an amendment) to the clause. An amendment means to change the wording, to replace a word or a phrase, to add something new or to strike (take away) something. Normally an amendment should be sent up to the before the delegate takes the floor but sometimes the debate moves so fast that you have to bring it with you to the floor. The amendment reads: Add sub-clause c: Making these rental bikes free of charge for all subscribed users. Delegate, you have the floor. Portugal is a great believer in bicycles and feels that users should not have to pay to ride a bike. Making these bikes free will also increase demand of them and therefore free up space on trams and buses which always tend to be overcrowded. Is the delegate open to any points of information? Any and all The will entertain 2 points. Are there any points on the floor? Germany and Spain. 8
GERMANY This delegate would like to remind the delegate that we are in a time of economic crisis and the governments need money to invest in programs such as city bikes. Does the delegate not agree that charging at least a small fee would help pay for this infrastructure? That is a good point. However, raising the price of public transportation would do the same thing. SPAIN Doesn t the delegate agree that individual governments should be able to decide whether or not and how much to charge for using these bicycles? What? Is this a democracy? NO! This is a dictatorship! WE must decide what everyone else has to do! Delegate that is not in order. Delegates must use parliamentary language and attitude at all times. Delegate of Portugal, please yield the floor. We yield the floor. SPAIN Motion to move directly into voting procedure! Second There has been a motion to move directly into voting procedure, are the any objections? Seeing as there are none, we will now vote on this amendment to add sub-clause c. All those in favour? All those against? Seeing as there is a clear majority against this amendment, it has failed. We will now move back into debate time on the original clause. The sets closed debate on this clause for 5 minutes in favour and 5 minutes against. The debate procedure continues following the same structure as we ve seen above: one person speaks in favour and answers points of information, then one person speaks against and also answers points of information. The may decide to entertain more than one speaker and delegates can also motion to extend debate time on the clause if they feel there is still more to say on the matter. It is up to the s discretion whether or not to entertain that motion. In the end, the delegates must vote on the clause, either for or against. Abstentions are only possible when voting on the paper/resolution as a whole, which is done at the very end of the debate. The will announce Closed Debate on the paper as a whole, leaving 10-15 minutes of time in favour and the 9
same amount for time against. Usually there are no points of information during this final closed debate it s just your last chance to make a speech. Once the delegates have voted on the entire paper, the will announce the end of the debate. Debates generally go clause-by-clause. This will give each student a chance to submit a clause and make a speech if he or she wants, as well as to make points of information. The debates usually start with a resolution that already contains a series of clauses that can be amended or added to. Several perambulatory clauses introduce the subject. They often refer to specific problems that need to be tackled and may reflect the content of the operative clauses that the students debate on. 10