Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN Framework of Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) is contrary to the convention’s spirit and could damage Taiwan’s environment and industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a document posted on its Web site yesterday.
This year the annual UNFCCC meeting is being held in Copenhagen from Monday to Dec. 18.
Since 1995, through a local research center Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan has been participating as a non-government organization observer but Taiwan’s repeated protests against the UNFCCC decision to list ITRI as from “Hsinchu, China” have fallen on deaf ears.
MOFA Deputy Shen Lyu-hsun (沈呂巡) this week said Taiwan will lodge another protest this year that “will be bigger” and hopefully more effective.
After Taiwan’s accession to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May, he said the nation had a better chance to enter the UNFCCC.
Article 7 of the convention’s Conference of Parties (COP), UNFCCC’s governing body, states that “the UN, its specialized agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as any state member thereof or observer thereto not party to the convention, may be represented at sessions of the COP as observers.”
Taiwan’s voluntary compliance with various international carbon emission standards as well as possible setbacks caused by Taiwan’s continued alienation make the country a suitable candidate for the convention MOFA said on its Web site.
“In August this year, Taiwan was devastated by Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest typhoon in recorded history. In just four days, a total of 2,686mm of rain fell in the mountainous areas of Central and Southern Taiwan,” a talking point on the Web site said.
“The fact that Taiwan is unable to use UNFCCC resources to formulate its own adaptation strategies, coupled with its exclusion from the international response framework, weakens its attempts to meet the challenges posed by global warming and climate change,” it said, adding that Taiwan “desperately needs” to be included in a disaster early warning system with access to real-time information.
MOFA pointed out that almost all WTO members are parties to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. Since WTO rules permit countries to impose tariffs on imports citing environmental protection concerns, “Taiwan would suffer from unfair trade treatment that adversely affects its trade and industries.”
The Environmental Protection Administration said Taiwan is responsible for roughly one percent of the world’s carbon output per year.
Appealing to the member-states, the document said Taiwan’s exclusion from the UNFCCC is against the convention preamble which calls for “the widest possible cooperation by all countries.”
The UNFCCC requires all interested parties to submit their application for observer status four months prior to the annual meeting. Taiwan missed the Aug 7 deadline but will definitely pitch a formal request next year, Shen said.
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