Taiwan yesterday highlighted its efforts to reach the global goal of net zero emissions as the UN’s COP27 climate summit started in Egypt with warnings against backsliding on efforts to cut emissions and calls for rich nations to compensate poor countries after a year of extreme weather disasters.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs changed its profile image on Twitter and Facebook to read: “Net-Zero World with Help from Taiwan” to coincide with the opening of the 13-day conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Although Taiwan is not recognized as a UN member and therefore excluded from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), some Taiwanese officials and non-governmental organization are able to participate in COP sessions in a private capacity.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Jason Lien (連建辰), head of the ministry’s legal department, said that Taiwan this year again asked like-minded countries and diplomatic allies to speak up on its behalf at COP27.
They are to ask that Taiwan be allowed to participate in global mechanisms, negotiations and activities that promote the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement in the same way as any other country, he said.
At least 10 Taiwan-based non-governmental organizations have been invited to COP27, he said.
Photo: Screen grab from Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account
Although excluded from the conference, Taiwan has pledged to meet the net zero emissions goal by 2050, he said.
In March, the government published Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050 to promote technology research and innovation in key areas, guide a green transition of industry and drive a new wave of economic growth, he said.
COP27 opens as climate-induced catastrophes have killed thousands, displaced millions and cost billions in damages around the world, and amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring inflation, an energy crunch and the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said he would not be a “custodian of backsliding” on the goal of slashing greenhouse emissions 45 percent by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5°C above late-19th-century levels.
“We will be holding people to account, be they presidents, prime ministers, CEOs,” Stiell said as the 13-day summit opened.
“The heart of implementation is everybody everywhere in the world every single day doing everything they possibly can to address the climate crisis,” he said.
Current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and Earth’s surface heat rise 2.8°C, research unveiled last week showed.
Promises made under the Paris Agreement would, if kept, only shave off a few tenths of a degree.
“Whilst I do understand that leaders around the world have faced competing priorities this year, we must be clear: As challenging as our current moment is, inaction is myopic and can only defer climate catastrophe,” said Alok Sharma, British president of the COP26.
“How many more wake-up calls does the world — and world leaders — actually need?” he said.
The UN World Meteorological Organization said the past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record, with an acceleration in sea level rise, glacier melt and heat waves.
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