Republic of Kiribati President Anote Tong yesterday called for cooperation among countries to tackle changes brought on by climate change, saying that it is a moral issue with responsibility shared by all nations.
Delivering a speech at the 44th annual conference of the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union (APPU) in Taipei, Tong said that “business as usual is no longer an option” for climate change mitigation efforts.
In face of global warming, “low-lying countries will be the first to disappear,” Tong said, as he urged leaders of each country to take on more responsibility for the harm done through climate change.
Photo: CNA
The annual conference attracted 84 lawmakers from 14 countries in the region to discuss strategies on how to work together to manage natural disasters and foster regional collaboration on emergency relief.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday was invited to address the audience at the opening ceremony of the three-day APPU General Assembly.
Ma said in English that he was really impressed by the importance the APPU members have attached to issues of climate change and disaster relief.
Due to the exclusion of Taiwan from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Taiwan takes climate change very seriously, he said.
Ma said the country is in a good position to achieve his administration’s goals of bringing national carbon dioxide emissions back to 2005 levels by 2020, and further to 2000 levels by 2025 — if the nation is able to increase energy efficiency by 2.3 percent each year.
“Taiwan in 2006 was responsible for 1 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and now it is 0.8 percent. In terms of per capita emissions, Taiwan was down from 18th in the world to 23rd. We have done our part, despite not being a signatory to the UNFCCC or the Kyoto Protocol, because, after all, the Republic of China is a responsible stakeholder in the international community. We will continue to do that,” Ma said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS