Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said on Thursday that although Taiwan is outside the UN framework, it should still contribute to addressing the problems of global warming.
Annan now heads the Geneva-based non-governmental organization the Global Humanitarian Forum, which concentrates on the humanitarian impact of climate change on the poor and other vulnerable groups.
In an informal meeting with members of the press in Geneva, Annan was asked by a CNA reporter for his views on the fact that Taiwan, the world's 22nd largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is not a member of the UN and therefore not a part of global cooperative efforts under the UN framework to fight climate change and whether the forum can facilitate the participation of non-UN member states in the global effort.
In response, Annan said on the political side, Taiwan has been trying very hard to join the UN.
"You tried almost every year when I was there and I know the efforts continue with my successor," he said.
"But on the substance of whether a country like Taiwan should become engaged in both mitigation and adaptation, I would say yes," he said.
He said there were more than 200 countries, more than the total number of UN member states, participating in the UN Climate Change Conference in Indonesia, because they realized whether or not they belong to the UN or other world bodies, "we are living in the same world and have the possibility to do something about the environment."
Annan said when facing climate change, each country should take action to deal with the problem without focusing on the issue of participation in certain groups.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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