A deal on the rules that govern the 2015 Paris Agreement yesterday appeared within grasp, as officials from almost 200 countries worked to bridge remaining differences after two weeks of UN talks in Poland.
While the accord set a headline target of keeping average global temperatures from rising by more than 2°C — or 1.5°C if possible — much of the fine print was left unfinished.
The meeting in Katowice was meant to finalize how countries report their emissions of greenhouses gases and the efforts they are taking to reduce them.
Poor countries also wanted assurances on financial support to help them cut emissions, adapt to inevitable changes such as sea level rise and pay for damage that has already happened.
“We’ve come a long way,” Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna told reporters ahead of a plenary meeting yesterday afternoon. “There’s been really late negotiations, there’s been big group negotiations, there’s been shuttle diplomacy all through the night and now we are coming to the wire.”
One major sticking point during the talks was how to create a functioning market in carbon credits.
Economists believe an international trading system could be an effective way to drive down emissions and raise large amounts of money for measures to curb global warming.
“We want billions to flow into trillions, and I’m someone who believes that it’s not just about national governments,” McKenna said. “Ultimately, the market is going to play a huge role in the cleaner solutions that we need, supporting countries and being efficient in how we do this.”
Emerging economies, such as Brazil, have pushed back against rich countries’ demands to cancel piles of carbon credits still lingering from a system set up under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
“There are still a range of possible outcomes and Brazil continues to work constructively with other parties to find a workable pathway forward,” Brazil’s chief negotiator Antonio Marcondes said.
While some officials questioned the format of the meeting, which has grown to a huge event with tens of thousands of participants, Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan stressed how important it was to bring all countries of the world together on the issue.
“We need a multilateral process, especially for the poorest and smallest countries that don’t go to G20,” she said. “But the lack of ambition by some rich countries, like the European Union, is worrying.”
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)