Beyond headlines of carbon markets and energy transitions, climate action fundamentally pertains to the Earth we inhabit. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 calls for swift climate change action. SDG 15 — Life on Land — calls for nations to protect, restore and maintain the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. In Taiwan and India, the two goals go hand in hand. From fragile mountain forests to semi-arid rangelands, the success or failure of climate policy is measured not just in tonnes of carbon, but in the health of the soil, rivers and biodiversity.
Taiwan’s geography illustrates this vividly with high-elevation forests and unique species. The Central Mountain Range reaches more than 3,000m. Rising temperatures, more powerful typhoons and unpredictable rainfalls already create landslides and erode conservation areas. Coastline wetlands are critical to migratory birds and serve as natural protection from floods. These areas are threatened by sea level rise and development pressures. Without specific counteractions — improved forest management, slope stabilization and habitat corridors — climate action might hasten the loss of ecosystems altogether.
India’s landscape is equally instructive, but far larger. The Himalayas store water for hundreds of millions, but these reserves are retreating under rising temperatures. Semi-arid grasslands are turning into dust bowls. Mangroves in the Sundarbans buffer storm surges, but they are eroding.
India has made ambitious commitments on renewable energy. Yet its funding for ecosystem protection remains thin. Programs like reforestation and watershed restoration are fragmented. Climate considerations are not always integrated into biodiversity policy.
This is where Taiwan-India cooperation can play a role. Taiwanese universities and research institutes have developed elaborate climate models of mountain slopes and water catchments at the local level. India has practiced large-scale, community-consensus-based ecosystem restoration — from joint forest management to rural watersheds — involving thousands of villages. Combining their respective strengths would render SDG 13 more effective and SDG 15 more reachable.
A pilot project could pair Taiwanese remote-sensing and early-warning systems with Indian expertise in community stewardship to monitor and restore highland forests in Taiwan and grasslands in India. Joint research on climate-resilient native species could inform reforestation in both countries. Data-sharing agreements could help track birds whose migrations bridge South Asia and East Asia, creating a rare link between conservationists separated by politics, but united by ecosystems. Such partnerships would also help both countries avoid the “green paradox” of climate policy undermining biodiversity. Large renewable energy installations can threaten habitats if poorly planned. Hydropower dams might be low-carbon, but they have a high impact on river ecology. By integrating SDG 13 and SDG 15 from the start, Taiwan and India could develop planning tools that weigh carbon benefits against ecosystem costs, showing other countries how to pursue climate goals without sacrificing nature.
Diplomatic limitations need not hinder this agenda. Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN climate and biodiversity conventions restricts visibility, but not potential. India, meanwhile, is positioning itself as an advocate of the global south. Building on the SDG Asia Expo already held in Taipei, a “climate and nature” forum could be launched through partner organizations or as a side event timed with COP30 in Belem, Brazil, allowing both to show leadership without waiting for an invitation.
The economic argument is as solid as the environmental one. Clean forests and wetlands retain carbon, help regulate water flow, and minimize impact from disasters — advantages that outweigh expenses.
Ten years from now, when the globe is reviewing the post-2030 agenda, the question will not just be if emissions were reduced, but if the living systems that support us were preserved.
Taiwan and India, though vastly different in size and situation, have mutually supporting assets that can answer that question. If their actions are aligned with SDG 13 and SDG 15, they can demonstrate that climate action and life on land are not competing objectives, but mutually supportive pillars of a resilient future.
By doing so, they would also present an example to other democracies that find themselves within a divided international order: Even in the absence of formal accords, functional science-based cooperation has the ability to safeguard both the climate and the biodiversity upon which it depends.
Sutandra Singha is an independent researcher with a doctorate in international studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, specializing in climate change.
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