Four Grade IV students from EGMT participated in the fourth edition of AproMUN, a model United Nations conference hosted by the School for Exceptionally Gifted Children in Bratislava. The conference was held over three days just before the autumn holiday (October 25th-27th).
All of our students were in committees which somehow dealt with the climate emergency and/or our future energy needs. Three were on the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) whose theme was the transition to greener or renewable energy sources in developing countries. Anna Malá represented France, Matej Čiljak represented Iceland, and Michal Chalupka represented Poland. Julianna Žingorová was the delegate of Russia at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), which tried to achieve the goals of the real-life COP26 meeting in Glasgow. The opening ceremony and general assembly of the conference took place at the Ministry of Foreign and European affairs building. One of the final events was a talk by Slovakia’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Kukan, who also took students’ questions. The committee sessions were held at the host school.
It was a small conference, with students from nine Slovak schools participating. The pandemic meant that schools from outside Slovakia could not attend. Still, all the debates were held exclusively in English, with our delegates very active in contributing and debating ideas and solutions. Michal Chalupka received an outstanding delegate award for his participation in the committee sessions.
James Baxter
Teacher of English