About 100 international workers and academics from more than 20 countries are attending the 10th Asia-Pacific Non-Governmental Organization’s (NGO) Environmental Conference, which opened in Taipei yesterday.
Almost 600 other participants also joined in discussions.
The conference’s inaugural meeting was in Bangkok in 1991 and it has been held every one to two years since.
It is now one of the most important international environmental forums to be held in the Asia--Pacific region.
This year, the conference is being hosted by a Taiwanese group, the Society of Wilderness, with topics such as environmental trusts, habitat conservation, high-tech pollution, green economies, environmental education, renewable energy and sustainable ecotourism up for discussion.
Ando Toshiko, a professor at Japan’s Saitama University and president of the Totoro Foundation, was invited to talk about his experiences establishing an environmental trust at Sayama Hills in metropolitan Tokyo.
Also invited was Ted Smith, coordinator of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology in the US, to discuss environmental and occupational health challenges in the global electronics industry.
During the opening ceremony, Asia-Pacific Environmental Council chairperson Isono Yayoi said the conference gave NGOs from different countries the opportunity to cooperate, but “there are still problems to be solved, such as serious water pollution, the shift to renewable energy and the need for an international framework to enhance environmental governance in Asia-Pacific countries.”
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said “the environmental NGOs are probably the most active NGOs in Taiwan, of which there are more than 500. They not only draw attention to environmental issues and increase the public’s environmental awareness, but they also put pressure on the EPA and local environmental bureaus, and these pressures are certainly one of the major driving forces behind Taiwan’s environmental protections.”
New Public Construction Commission Minister Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) talked about ways to deal with global climate change.
“Global climate change is not a simple problem with a simple answer, so a strategy for dealing with climate change through sustainable development needs good science, clear policies and good communication,” Lee said
He added that public awareness and public engagement were very important.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS