A second Taiwanese non-profit environmental organization has been accepted as an observer by the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Taipei Times learned yesterday.
After three years of rejections, the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation (環境品質文教基金會) was accepted by the UNFCCC on Wednesday in New Delhi, India, where the Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP8) is being held, Eric Liou (劉銘龍), secretary-general of the foundation, said yesterday.
The 10-day COP8, which will end on Nov. 1, focuses on preparing governments, especially in developing countries, for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which comes into effect early next year.
The foundation's entry was approved on the opening day of the conference along with 34 other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
Since 1995, when COP1 was held in Berlin, Germany, Taiwan's government has participated as an observer in the convention under the umbrella of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which is partly financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Liou said the UNFCCC had given no reason for rejecting the foundation's three previous applications.
When the UN Word Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held two months ago in Johannesburg, South Africa, Liou visited UNFCCC executive secretary Joke Waller-Hunter to push for his foundation's participation in the implementation of global climate-change treaties.
Two weeks after the UN summit closed, Liou said he received notification from the UNFCCC secretariat that said the foundation's application for observer status at COP8 would be processed.
The secretariat of the UNFCCC, however, identified the foundation as being from China, as it does the semi-governmental ITRI, a problem Liou said his foundation could do nothing about.
"It is irrelevant to the foundation what the country identification is," he said. "The governmental group [ITRI] can't even influence this."
A delegation of government and industry officials under the name ITRI is now in New Delhi to observe the meeting.
Liou said that his foundation's entry would become another channel through which Taiwan could participate in international environmental affairs. The foundation would have more flexibility than the semi-governmental ITRI, he said.
"We aim to keep Taiwan well-informed about the latest environmental treaties, especially the Kyoto Protocol, which will come into effect early next year and will have a great impact on Taiwan's multinational industries," Liou said.
Liou said that gaining useful information from the international community to ensure Taiwan's sustainable future should be the country's top priority.
Last week, the foundation also became the first Taiwanese group to be recognized by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the financial mechanism for international agreements on biodiversity, climate change and persistent organic pollutants that was set up in 1991.
After participating in the second assembly of the GEF, which was held in Beijing last week, Liou suggested that Taiwan's government establish an organization similar to the GEF to help developing countries fund projects and programs that protect the global environment.
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