NUS team wins climate negotiation competition

Grace Chua, Straits Times 9 May 09;

MEET Singapore's future climate negotiators.

The team of four law students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) pipped law students from Yale, Cambridge and other schools to win an international climate-negotiation competition.

In the competition in March - held in conjunction with a real- world climate science congress in Copenhagen in Denmark - teams posed as fictional countries to debate the thorny issues of carbon- emission quotas and trade.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries face limits on their greenhouse-gas emissions, but can buy carbon credits from developing countries under a scheme called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). But how and when emissions should be reduced are often sticking points in negotiations.

NUS and the nine other members of the International Alliance of Research Universities, along with other prestigious universities, were invited to field teams for the competition, which was organised by the University of Copenhagen.

Eighteen teams submitted written proposals on their negotiating stances, of which eight were selected for the live-debate finals in Copenhagen.

The NUS team debated from the position of a fictional developing country - 'a cross between Singapore and China', according to team member and third-year law student Choo Zheng Xi, 24.

The team argued that the CDM should allow for industry- or sector-based targets.

'It was a fresh take on things, which I think is why we distinguished ourselves,' said the team's coach, assistant law professor Lim Lei Theng.

The Singapore team won based on its ability to make its ideas attractive and meet other countries' proposals, said the competition's judges, who are a group of experienced negotiators.

Team member and fourth-year student Lan Huishan, 23, said: 'We were in shock when we won.'

Other teams had much more environmental law experience, she added.

But that belies the team's hard work in the last six months or so - writing a proposal, doing research on climate policies and science, and honing its negotiation skills.

Its winning proposal was presented to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the competition.

It will also be presented during the real COP-15 climate meeting, which will take place in Copenhagen in December.

The competition piqued the team's interest in climate change negotiations, Mr Choo said.

'I'm starting to understand that climate change is a moral issue that affects future generations and the lives of people in less developed countries.

'If we don't do something, we're morally culpable as well,' he added.