Taiwan committed to combating climate change: TECC

NEW DELHI: Before the 25th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take place next month, Taiwan reiterates its commitment to combating climate change with the international community, stated a press release from Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC).

The COP25 will incorporate the second meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at COP21 in France in 2015 to deal with adaptation, mitigation, and financing policies against greenhouse gasses, the TECC said.

Quoting the World Meteorological Organization’s data showing June 2019 was the hottest month in history, breaking temperature records from New Delhi to the North Pole, the TECC said an island state like Taiwan has strongly felt the pain of climate change and its 23 million people care deeply about the environment.

It said that as the world’s 22nd largest economy, Taiwan has the responsibility to join the global strive to cut greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, Taiwan passed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act in June 2015, which set out a series of five-year regulatory carbon reduction targets designed to lower Taiwan’s greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2050, the TECC said.

It said that at the joint endeavor of the government’s agricultural, manufacturing, residential-commercial and transportation agencies, the increase of carbon emissions from traditional energy sources in Taiwan has also slowed to an average of 0.1 percent rise over the past decade, outperforming Singapore’s 1.6 percent and South Korea’s 2.3 percent, according to Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

The TECC confirms, although Taiwan is not a party to the UNFCCC, Taiwan will again send a delegation comprising representatives from the country’s public and private sectors, academic institutes, enterprises as well as non-governmental organizations to the COP25 event. In the meantime, Taiwan calls on all stakeholders to take action in reducing carbon emissions and providing support to developing countries in particular.

Taiwan has been an active partner to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, the TECC emphasized. In Central America, for example, Taiwan has cooperated with local governments in implementing projects in the use of geographic information systems and global positioning systems. These projects, through the reporting of land-use changes and timely detection of earthquakes and landslides, have helped such countries as Belize and Honduras to strengthen nationwide environmental monitoring and disaster early warning.

In the Pacific, for another example, Taiwan has established a wide range of multilateral cooperation projects to promote green technologies and improve energy efficiency, such as the Home Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Project in the Marshall Islands. This substantial climate change mitigation project has helped the 75,000-people Pacific island state reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 992 tons annually, the TECC said.

In green finance and technological innovation, Taiwan has contributed US$80 million to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)’s Green Energy Special Fund, which has been utilized to co-finance EBRD investment projects that incorporate green energy components such as LED street lights, smart meters, solar-powered technologies and public transportation and electric systems to be built in Eastern Europe and the Middle East countries.

Taiwan’s commitment to standing with the international community to fight climate change is further evidenced by its adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and publication in September 2017 of the Voluntary National Review on their implementation, the TECC said.

The TECC said Taiwan’s economic development and familiarity with environmental management issues make its experience to cope with climate change extremely valuable to other island states and developing nations facing similar challenges. “Taiwan is ready, able and willing to share its knowledge and experience with other countries,” EPA Minister Chang Tzi-chin said. “No one should be left behind in this fight,” the Minister said.