The international community should support Taiwan’s bid for meaningful participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as its exclusion from the U.N. specialized agency is inappropriate and counterproductive, Taipei Mission in Sweden Representative Daniel T. C. Liao said in an opinion piece published Oct. 31 by Swedish daily Nya Wermlands-Tidningen.
Combating climate change, as stated by the UNFCCC, “calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries,” with Taiwan ready and willing to contribute to the sustainable development of the planet, Liao said. It is important for the country to participate in a meaningful way in the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC Nov. 7-18 in Marrakech, Morocco, he added.
According to Liao, Taiwan has demonstrated its commitment to addressing the single most important issue for the future of humanity by enacting last July the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act, which contains a long-term target of reducing emissions by at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It is also one of the few countries to have written into law a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, Liao said, Taiwan is taking the lead in Asia with its goal of phasing out nuclear power. As part of this undertaking, the government is aiming to increase renewable energy production to 20 percent of the national total by 2050.
These measures are in keeping with the targets in the Paris Agreement, which was concluded last December at the COP 21 meeting in France. Set to take force Nov. 4, the agreement strengthens the international response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century below 2 C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 C. The agreement also aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
Although not a signatory to the UNFCCC, Taiwan has been taking part in peripheral events of the agency’s sessions as a nongovernmental organization observer since 1995 through the Industrial Technology Research Institute, a leading nonprofit R&D outfit dedicated to helping Taiwan industries stay competitive and sustainable. (KWS-E)
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