Taiwan is set to become an official partner of an EU greenhouse gas monitoring program after a local university signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Monday with laboratories in Brussels.
The National Central University inked the MOU with German and French national laboratories in the Belgian capital, finalizing a joint project aimed at measuring greenhouse gases over the Pacific region.
The agreement paves the way for Taiwan to become a formal partner of the In-Service Aircraft for Global Observing System (IAGOS) program supported by the EU Commission, said Wang Kuo-ying (
The formal partnership will also enable Taiwan to learn about greenhouse gas changes being monitored by the IAGOS program in other regions of the world, Wang said.
Taiwan's participation fills a crucial gap in the EU program, which has failed thus far to include the Pacific Ocean in its monitoring program, Wang said.
Starting later next year, the IAGOS program will install monitoring equipment on between 10 and 20 long-haul Airbus aircraft, including some operated by China Airlines (CAL), to survey the Pacific Ocean region.
CAL also signed the MOU on Monday.
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Winston Dang (陳重信), who attended the signing ceremony in the Belgian capital, lauded the partnership, as it comes at a time when Taiwan is limited diplomatically because of China's interference.
Dang said he believes that Taiwan's active efforts to join global environmental protection initiatives will eventually earn it the recognition of the international community.
At the ceremony, representatives from national laboratories in Germany and France as well as EU officials said that the cooperation with Taiwan is significant for the EU's related research and will enhance their competitiveness.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS