Taiwan unveiled the Pan-Pacific Adaptation on Climate Change (PPACC), an initiative aimed at helping the region deal with the effects of climate change, in Paris on Sunday.
Several nations in the region are facing similar challenges as a result of climate change and Taiwan has the technology to deal with those issues, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) said at the launch.
The Asia-Pacific region needs the PPACC to help it prepare for climate change, Wei said.
The PPACC is to cooperate with the Center for Collective Intelligence (CCI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, the EPA said.
Taiwan’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Management Office has also signed a letter of intent with the CCI’s Climate CoLab on future cooperation, it said.
CCI director Thomas Malone said at the launch that Climate CoLab’s partnership with the EPA is its first in the Asia-Pacific region, which is at high risk from the effects of climate change because of its dense population.
The EPA said its office would work with Climate CoLab, which brings together people from around the world to work on climate change issues, to hold a series of events and contests to solicit ideas from the public.
Wei is in Paris for the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to which Taiwan is not a party.
He is the first Taiwanese minister to take part in a UN climate change summit and is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with environmental protection officials from other nations during his visit.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
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