The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday released a bilingual video calling for global support of Taiwan’s participation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to coincide with the start of COP29 in Azerbaijan.
In line with previous practice, this year MOFA has made a video titled Our Pale Blue Dot, a reference to scientist Carl Sagan’s 1994 book on the future of humans in space, the ministry said in a news release.
The two-minute-30-second clip includes images and videos taken by Formosat-5, Taiwan’s first domestically developed and produced Earth observation satellite, and showcases the nation’s achievements in helping its allies combat climate change, MOFA said.
Photo: screen grab from a video on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site
The aim of the video is to call on the international community to accept Taiwan in its push for meaningful participation in the UNFCCC, it added.
There is also a 30-second version of the video, which has Mandarin and English subtitles, it said.
MOFA said it is also translating the video into Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian and Ukrainian.
This year’s UN Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP29, opened yesterday and is to run through Friday next week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The conference has been held annually since the first UN climate agreement was reached in 1992. It is intended to be a platform for governments to discuss and agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change.
Taiwan left the UN in 1971, when the People’s Republic of China was included, and it has since been excluded from the UN’s special agencies.
Since 1995, Taiwanese officials have participated in the annual conference through the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute, acting as a non-governmental organization observer.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS