As countries around the world present their action plans for emissions reductions in line with the Copenhagen Accords ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday that Taiwan would not meet the cut-off date and instead adopt a “wait-and-see approach.”
Under the terms of the non-binding agreement, industrialized “Annex I” countries should submit targets for quantified cuts in emissions by 2020 to the UN Climate Change Secretariat before tomorrow. Developing “Non-Annex I” countries are to outline action plans indicating measures for limiting harmful carbon emissions.
The remarks were made following a statement released on Thursday indicating that Taiwan would submit a plan fulfilling the criteria set out for developing countries in addition to publicizing government targets and plans on emissions reductions pointing to a decision reached by the Executive Yuan.
However, no deadlines were mentioned in the EPA statement. Instead it stated that emission reduction targets and action would be publicized and released at an “appropriate time.”
This means Taiwan will not submit a plan before Monday because it has yet to be finalized, EPA climate change chief Hsiao Hui-chuan (蕭慧娟) told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview.
“We didn’t find a need to hasten the process,” Hsiao said, because Taiwan was not a signatory to the agreement. “We have no [obligations] under the agreement ... there is no reason for us to be first.”
Government officials were unable to attend the Copenhagen climate summit because Taiwan is not a member of the UN. Most of the 50-strong delegation led by the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) spent hours waiting outside the Bella Center last month after being refused entry to the venue.
The EPA would ideally like to wait to have a look at the action plans submitted by other countries — including China — before finalizing its own, Hsiao said.
“Even if the plans aren’t publicly released … we have sources that can relay that information to us,” she said.
Hsiao said the information would enable the EPA to make informed decisions in addition to avoiding technical errors in formatting and the amount of detail needed.
Despite a statement by UN climate secretariat Yvo De Boer on Wednesday that tomorrow’s deadline would be “flexible,” environmental critics said yesterday that the lack of initiative shown by the agency showcased a lack of will to produce a viable action plan.
Hsu Kuang-jung (徐光蓉), a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at National Taiwan University, said that the EPA’s current target of cutting emissions to 2005 levels by 2020 was not enough, especially when compared with Japan and South Korea. The latter, as a non-Annex I nation, has already submitted a plan to reduce emissions by 30 percent from business-as-usual levels by 2020.
“They have been too focused on the issue instead of the actual content ... The government’s environmental initiatives haven’t been enough,” Hsu said.
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