Our debate was broadcast live on YouTube on 13 November 2024, from the Cambridge Union Society's historic Debate Chamber at the heart of the city of Cambridge. The motion under debate was
Road Infrastructure: this house believes that Digitalisation is the most effective pathway to Net-zero
Guided by our Chair, Professor Lord Robert Mair, the proposing debate team lead by Jennifer Schooling, Kyriakos Kantarakias and Haritha Jayasinghe battled it out against their opposing team of Elliot Shaw, Stephen Elderkin and Abbas Solouki.
With plenty of interaction from the floor, the debate was a really enjoyable way to find out about the challenges we face in decarbonising Road Infrastructure and the possible ways we can hope to address it.
Click on the link below to find out who won the debate!
How does a debate work?
(with thanks to The Cambridge Union Society for the FAQs: Debating FAQs - The Cambridge Union (cus.org))
In every debate there is a motion: a statement, idea or policy that is disputed and framed within the prefix ‘This House’. Usually, the motion is either a policy which changes the status quo (e.g. This House Would Provide All Police Officers With Firearms) or a statement, the truth or falsehood of which is examined in the debate (e.g. This House Regrets the Decline of Marxism in Western Liberal Democracies). There are two sides to the debate: the government and the opposition. The government, also known as the proposition, supports the motion whilst the opposition opposes it. After the debate, the judges will decide which debaters were most persuasive.
The Running Order
- The Chair will open the debate by introducing the speakers.
- Each speaker will be given 7 minutes to make their argument. The first to speak will be the proposing 1st speaker, followed by a response by the opposing 1st speaker.
- The chair will then introduce the proposing 2nd speaker, followed by the opposing 2nd speaker.
- The debate will then be opened to speakers from the floor for 20 minutes, these speakers will be given one to two minutes for speeches or questions in proposition, opposition and abstention.
- The Chair will then return to the 3rd speaker for the proposition followed by the 3rd and final speaker from the opposition.
The audience are then called to vote, which in the Cambridge Debate Chamber we do with our feet by passing through the EYES door or the NOSE door or through the middle door to abstain. The votes are tallied and the winner announced by the Chair.
Who was our debate team?
