The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the Taiwan Carbon Solution Exchange (TCX) on Monday each signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the Eswatini Stock Exchange in Taipei.
The signings with Eswatini, Taiwan’s only remaining UN-recognized diplomatic ally in Africa, came in response to Taipei’s foreign policy efforts, and are a significant milestone for cooperation between the two sides’ capital markets, the TWSE said in a statement.
TCX CEO Joshua Tien (田建中) said its MOU would link the two carbon credit markets, with credits based on Eswatini’s abundant natural resources likely to be traded on the TCX.
Photo: CNA
As for the stock exchange MOU, TWSE president Chien Lih-chung (簡立忠) said it was the first partnership between Taiwan and Eswatini related to capital markets and had symbolic significance.
“The collaboration will enable Taiwan to share its experience with the world and bolster Taiwan’s international influence,” Chien said.
Ray Lin (林瑞岳) — chairman of Taiwanese textile group Tex-Ray Industrial Co, which has invested in Eswatini for more than 20 years, and a former honorary consul-general of Eswatini in Taiwan — was a key advocate for the MOU signings.
He said he has high expectations for bilateral cooperation on carbon credits because of Eswatini’s natural resources and the carbon sinks they represent.
The partnership between the countries would start with exchanging carbon credit-related information and sharing carbon credit techniques and know-how, before expanding to talent training and other substantive exchanges, Tien said.
Eswatini’s carbon credits, which would most likely be “green and yellow carbon” credits, could be traded on the TCX after being certified by international institutions and reviewed by the Ministry of Environment, he said.
Green credits are from natural carbon sinks found on land, mainly forests, while yellow credits are soil, and can be created by changing to organic farming practices, he said.
Central Bank of Eswatini Governor Phil Mnisi, who witnessed the signings, said that Eswatini’s climate issues, including floods, droughts and heat waves, have worsened in the past few years, indicating that climate change must be addressed immediately.
Carbon credits are one way to do so, he said, adding that Article 6 of the Paris Agreement allows countries to transfer carbon credits earned from the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to another country to meet the climate targets.
Liou Je-liang (劉哲良), TCX board member and a research fellow at the Center for Green Energy of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taipei, said that Article 6 provides a way for Taiwan and Eswatini to work together on carbon credits.
Taiwan is not a signatory to the Paris Agreement, adopted by UN members in 2015, but it has kept tabs on the agreement’s requirements and aligned its policies accordingly.
Compared with Taiwan’s foreign aid to its allies, which mainly involves one-way financial assistance, the MOU on carbon promises mutual benefits, with Taiwan helping with carbon credit techniques and certification, while Eswatini lists carbon credits on the TCX, Liou said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS