Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4, many national leaders and the elite of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met at the global summit meeting on sustainable development in Johannesburg to try to find a solution to Earth's problems. In the 10 years following the 1992 Rio de Janeiro summit, the global environment has continued to deteriorate, greenhouse gas emissions have increased sharply and loss of human life and property due to drought and floods has increased steadily. Last year, Taiwan suffered several flooding disasters and this year we have already seen enough drought and dengue fever. How should we respond to these increasingly serious climatic changes?
Short-term measures for dealing with symptoms and long-term measures for dealing with underlying factors should be implemented simultaneously and they should be taken more seriously. Short-term measures could be the active development of early warning systems for climate change (including early warning systems for both droughts and floods) and the active promotion of a national disaster prevention system.
Thanks to technological advances, scientists can now make general forecasts of possible climate changes for the next three to six-month period. Taiwan should build a regional weather forecast center integrating the fruits of current technological development and cooperating with international forecasting centers. The aim should be to prepare respon-ses to climate change as early as possible by providing information about such changes during the next three to six month period to government, business and the general public.
There should be even more aggressive efforts to establish an early warning system for typhoons and torrential rains that cause flooding and landslides. In areas where flooding and landslides are common, this system should be capable of providing correct early warning reports 12 to 24 hours in advance to give residents ample time to respond.
The establishment of an early warning system will not require large funds, but it will provide a sharp drop in loss of human life and property. It could be said that such a system would have a good price-earnings ratio. I'm afraid that the funds now spent by the government on forecasting climate change are still insufficient, and it really is necessary to double these funds. It is also
necessary to bring talented research and development people involved in climate change back to Taiwan since there is a lack of this kind of personnel here.
Long-term measures for dealing with underlying factors in response to climate change must be more aggressive in initiating sustainable development plans. The National Council on Sustainable Development is convened by Premier Yu Shyi-kun himself, which shows the importance he places on the issue. If we are to see any results, however, sustainable development requires cooperation between central and local governments, as well as their cooperation with local businesses, NGOs, community groups and academic circles to initiate sustainable development plans at a township level.
Taiwan lacks plans for initiating sustainable development plans on a local level and the organizational structure for initiating such plans is lacking at the county and city government levels. The council should request that county and city governments actively set up sustainable development committees to be convened by county commissioners or city mayors. They should invite representatives from local businesses and private organizations, elected representatives, academics and experts, as well as government bureau chiefs and offices to regular meetings on sustainable development to draft concrete plans for the initiation of sustainable development plans. Each county and city should also select an area for the implementation of model plans for sustainable development.
Each year, the council should hold a meeting to take a comprehensive inventory of sustainable development results achieved by each county and city government. The successful sustainable development experiences should be widely disseminated to let townships and urban areas understand that they can initiate their own sustainable development plans. Experiences in other countries have shown that making townships and urban areas the basic unit for sustainable development brings concrete and visible results in three to five years.
Sustainable development can fully harmonize local economic, environmental and social development and greatly improve the quality of life for everyone. The government should emphasize local sustainable development plans. This is the only way to put Earth on the road towards sustainable development.
Sun Chih-hong is the director of the Global Change Research Center at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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