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TOPIC A - Semiconductors and Advanced Technologies in Trade and Development

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The topic of Semiconductors and Advanced Technologies in Trade and Development explores how critical technologies such as microchips, large language models (LLMs), and quantum computing are reshaping global economic competition. Much like the Space Race of the Cold War, the race for technological leadership has become a defining feature of today’s geopolitical and trade landscape. Global powers are competing to secure supply chains for semiconductors and the critical minerals needed to produce them, while also employing export controls and industrial policies to protect strategic advantages.

While these innovations hold the potential to accelerate productivity and economic growth, they also risk deepening inequality between advanced economies and developing nations, who may become increasingly dependent on a handful of technology leaders. This topic is particularly urgent as supply chains face mounting disruptions from geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions, and concentrated chokepoints in chip fabrication. Examining these dynamics is essential for understanding how the international community should balance global technological progress with domestic economic development. Delegates will debate whether the UN and ECOFIN can play a role in regulating or guiding this race, and how to ensure that emerging technologies expand opportunity rather than entrench dependency.

 

TOPIC B - Economic Architecture for Climate Action: Pricing Pollution, Financing Transition

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The topic of Economic Tools to Combat Climate Change examines how money, markets, and rules can be organized to cut emissions at scale. Around the world, governments are testing carbon pricing (taxes or cap-andtrade), green finance (bonds, loans, and guarantees for clean projects), and regulatory frameworks (standards, public procurement, and disclosure) to steer trillions of dollars toward cleaner energy, transport, and industry. Much like past global races to build new economic systems, countries are now competing—and sometimes cooperating—to set the price of pollution, protect jobs and energy security, and shape trade through ideas like carbon clubs and border adjustments. These tools can accelerate innovation and growth, but they also raise hard questions about fairness: developing countries face higher borrowing costs and climate damages, while rich countries worry about carbon leakage and political backlash if prices swing.

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This debate is urgent because the design choices made now—how prices are stabilized, how results are measured, how finance is shared, and how trade rules treat different partners—will determine who invests, who benefits, and who is left behind. Delegates will consider whether the UN and ECOFIN should push for clearer global guardrails: stronger measurement and verification, credible carbon markets under Article 6, scalable blended-finance mechanisms, just-transition support for workers and regions, and trade-compatible approaches that recognize each country’s efforts. The goal is to craft an updated or alternative framework to Paris that is effective, fair, and enforceable—so climate finance expands opportunity rather than entrenching dependency.

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CHAIR: Kargil Behl

CO-CHAIR: Arul Shrivastava