On Friday afternoon, debate commenced for the delegates to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). A general willingness to remove space debris manifested in the opening speeches. Many countries were also interested in the possibilities of space tourism and the mining of asteroids, though emphasis was placed on the fact that any exploitation of space should be sustainable. Less developed countries, such as Algeria and Ethiopia, also talked about the need for financial aid so as to ensure that all countries explored space on an equal footing.
After the opening speeches ended, delegates found themselves undecided on the agenda for the afternoon. Some delegates talked about the removal of space debris, while others focused on preventing countries and the private sector from releasing any more space debris. An unmoderated caucus was called, and it was decided that delegates would focus on measures to prevent various parties from releasing more space debris. The Russian delegate called for the creation of new legislation to achieve this goal. However, the US delegate rebutted that the COPUOS already had guidelines on releasing space debris and it was only a matter of making the guidelines legally binding, making sure that countries and private companies would conform to them.
Despite both the said and unsaid support that many countries, such as Denmark and Ethiopia, had for the US’ proposal, close reading of the guidelines by the COPUOS show that these guidelines might prove more difficult for developing countries with lower budgets to meet, as dedicated design efforts are required to decrease the amount of space debris released by the spacecrafts.
With reference to the difficulty of developing countries in the development of their space industry and efforts to decrease the amount of space debris they produce, the delegate of China declared in an interview that “[China] has the capability to help other countries….the capability to do a lot of things”, demonstrating China’s willingness to extend aid to these countries. The delegate of Ethiopia also mentioned in the opening speech that Ethiopia has been funded by China in its efforts to develop its space industry.
After the moderated caucus ended, India proposed an idea that seemed to unite the best of both worlds. The delegate spoke of setting up an international organisation that would require countries or companies joining it to accept the COPUOS guidelines as legally binding. There would also be a tax on countries, which would go to a fun that could be used to help developing countries develop their space industry. Joining would be completely voluntary. However, the generosity was quickly shot down by the US, which declared that while it supported the idea of an organisation, it would not accept taxation on itself, and that joining the organisation had to be a compulsory thing. An unmoderated caucus was then called to push forward the idea of an organisation. In the US’ speech after the unmoderated caucus, the delegate believed that everyone agreed to the concept of such an organisation existing. The delegate wanted to move on to the next topic of removing space debris.
Regardless of the contents of the US’ speech, rejection of the proposal of an organisation was still visible. While most of the council had moved on, some delegates still enquired about the proposal. The delegate of India fumbled when asked about the incentives of joining such an organisation, mentioning only one concrete point before saying that they believed that council could discuss the incentives. Out of options, they hit back at the dissenters, implying that they were morally corrupt.
There are still a few issues that have not been discussed in the council session, and will be debated on in the next few days.
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