International climate change workshop staged in Taipei

2016/07/19

The 2016 International Workshop on Climate Change was held July 13 at National Taiwan University in Taipei City, bringing together more than 200 officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from European Union and Asian countries including Germany, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam to exchange information and discuss collaborative projects on carbon emissions reduction.

Sponsored by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration and European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, the conference focused on carbon market capacity building projects. “Taiwan is working to promote low-carbon societies through international support for and regional collaboration on carbon market development,” EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan said in his opening address at the event.

In his remarks, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Ching-shan Hou similarly emphasized Taiwan’s commitment to working with the global community on establishing carbon markets. “There is an urgent need to enhance cooperation in this field both between the public and private sectors in Taiwan as well as between the country, its international partners and nongovernmental organizations,” he said.

The workshop is part of Taiwan’s efforts to enhance environmental protection and play a greater role in combating global climate change. The nation has pledged to reduce carbon emissions to half their 2005 levels by 2050, as specified in the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Management Act. This goal is in line with the targets in the Paris Agreement, which was reached at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the French capital last November.

Chien Hui-chen, executive director of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Management Office, noted in her remarks that the act, promulgated in 2015, includes provisions for the establishment of a carbon cap-and-trade system. Chien also pointed out President Tsai Ing-wen stated in her inaugural address that Taiwan would “regularly review goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the agreement negotiated at the COP21 meeting in Paris.”

The UNFCCC, which entered into force in 1994, is a global framework for negotiating environmental and industrial agreements to tackle climate change. The COP, the decision-making body of the UNFCCC, meets annually in cities around the globe. Although Taiwan is not a member of the U.N. and therefore not a signatory to the treaty, the nation has sent a delegation to the COP host city each year to support global efforts to tackle climate change and promote its bid to participate in the body as an observer.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=246299&ctNode=2194&mp=9)