The coalition government led by conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard suffered defeat in the election on Nov. 25. Labor party leader Kevin Rudd secured victory, calling on election eve for policy on climate change to be a priority.
Taiwan's political strategy remains tied to the issue of national identity and sovereignty.
If the public throws enough votes behind an environmentally oriented party for it to secure a legislator-at-large seat in the elections next month, it would be a catalyst to force the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to focus more on environmental issues.
Australia's per capita carbon-dioxide emissions rank second in the world. Mining, meat farming and transportation are all major culprits.
Australians don't need former US vice president Al Gore to tell them global warming is real -- they have experienced the effects of climate change through a series of damaging droughts.
While in power, Howard followed the US' lead, enthusiastically supporting the invasion of Iraq, refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, taking a non-committal stance at APEC and promoting nuclear power to the international community as a means of reducing the greenhouse effect. Rudd rose to power by opposing the deployment of Australian troops to Iraq. He advocates the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which would give his country negotiation rights at the post-Kyoto summit in Bali next month. All are measures promoted by Australia's third-largest political force, the Greens.
The Green Party proposes a stop to new coal mines, canceling subsidies to the mining industry, stopping uranium extraction and exportation, carbon taxes and sustainable energy.
Taiwan produces 1 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Its per capita emissions are behind only Australia and the US and are drawing international concern. The DPP, however, claims Taiwan doesn't need to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because we are not a UN member. The DPP's bid for UN membership suddenly flies out the window.
When the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, the EU, Japan and other countries may begin to impose import taxes on goods produced in high carbon-emitting countries. Taiwanese industries will relocate and the economy will collapse.
Even more unbelievably, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) actually opposed setting a schedule for emission reductions in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which has passed its first reading in the legislature.
Yet, during a visit from Mohan Munasinghe, vice chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dang boasted that the Act is a first among developing nations.
We used to be proud of the nation's economic prosperity -- now we are worried about looming ecological disaster.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
If Taiwan Plastic Corp, whose industrial activity accounts for over one-quarter of the nation's emissions, gains permission to build another steel plant, it will soon be responsible for one-third of carbon dioxide output.
When the UN holds its annual summit on climate change in Bali on Saturday, various environmental groups will protest at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and in Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Kaohsiung. The public is making its concerns clear. How can politicians ignore that?
Pan Han-shen is Taiwan Green Party's secretary-general and a part-time lecturer at Aletheia University.
Translated by Angela Hong
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