Day 1 – Hannah Austgen

Today was the first day of the convention, so when we arrived, we went directly to the opening session.  When we got into the meeting area, there were four people playing music at the front of the room.  We were sitting above all the delegates, so we got to watch them mingle until the President began the meeting.  After a couple of speakers and a video, the President announced that the opening statements would begin.  Due to a lack of time, only a couple of countries, who represented a greater region, delivered their opening statements. The opening statements that struck me the most were from Indonesia, the Asia Pacific, and a victim of mercury poisoning.  Indonesia gave very specific goals, unlike the other countries.  They said that they hoped to fully ban dental amalgams by 2020.  I also really enjoyed the Asia Pacific opening statement.  It was really similar to the Asia opening statement from our simulation (they requested funding and technological help).  Finally, as a part of the opening statements, the convention had a victim of mercury poisoning speak.  It was very powerful and served as a call to all countries to make mercury history.

During lunch, I decided to attend a side event on planetGOLD, a program which was allotted $45 million to decrease anthropogenic emissions from AGSM.  I learned a lot about the issues within the AGSM sector as well as the problems that are faced when trying to get miners to switch to more environmentally friendly methods.  The speakers on the panel were well-spoken and very interesting.  I really enjoyed how the speakers discussed that planetGOLD views the miners as experts.  PlanetGOLD makes an effort to understand the miners and educate them in order to create change instead of just walking in and changing everything.

The President opened the afternoon plenary.  Almost immediately the BRS secretariat spoke about a joint secretariat.  The EU proposed CRP3 which suggested that the BRS secretariat and Minamata secretariat share the relevant services. The US and Brazil were the only countries that spoke against the idea of a joint secretariat.  They felt as if autonomy was critical for the conventions.  Next, the President brought up an effectiveness evaluation.  Most of the parties wanted more experts, an attribution report, and adequate monitoring to decrease knowledge gaps. My favorite part of the entire day was when it was decided that Indonesia would host the next Minamata convention.  They played a very interesting video showing Bali and the convention center.  Colombia stepped down so that Indonesia could host.  When Indonesia was picked, I saw true cooperation between countries and I really enjoyed that.