Taiwan has not only the responsibility but also the technology to combat global warming, the Luxembourg Green Party said yesterday while announcing its support for Taiwan to become a member of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a press conference in Taipei.
“The Greens support Taiwan’s participation in the UNFCCC — it’s important to solve together an issue that is a global issue,” said Felix Braz, vice-president of the Green Party caucus in the Luxembourg parliament.
“Taiwan is especially important because you’re one of the most developed countries. Like Luxembourg, you’re part of the problem, so you have to be part of the solution,” he said. “Not only because you have the responsibility, but also because you have the technology [to combat global warming] — you’re very active in exporting those technologies.”
Braz said that developed countries like Taiwan and Luxembourg are part of the problem because it is developed countries that produce the most carbon emissions, while all countries have to suffer the consequences.
Braz said he disagreed with the view that emissions are an inevitable result of economic development and that green energy would have a negative impact on the economy.
In the past two years, more than 1 million jobs had been created in renewable energy industries in Germany, he said.
“Renewable energy is not a job killer. Job killers are those who say things do not need to be changed, job creators are those who are investing in new technologies,” he said. “Our economy would be better, more efficient, less dependent on others. Our economy would not be subject to uncontrolled inflation that we did not create if we invest more into renewable energy.”
Asked about his meeting with Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), Braz said he disagreed with Shen’s view that nuclear energy is clean and efficient.
“Nuclear energy is very expensive. You can develop much more forms of efficient renewable energy with that money,” he said. “Right now, we still don’t know what we can do with the waste, we can only hide it. It’s a dangerous technology.”
Meanwhile, Green Party Taiwan spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) urged the government to fulfill its promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Taiwan already has three times more greenhouse gas emissions than the global average. Yet, newly approved industrial zone projects and those pending approval would create 65 million tonnes more emissions in future,” Pan said.
“Such highly polluting projects must be stopped,” he said.
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