The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has filed a protest with the organizer of the 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen after it was listed as being from “China,” ITRI executive vice president Chu Hsin-sen (曲新生) said yesterday.
Although the institute has sent a letter of protest, it “cannot reject” the opportunity to speak on the international stage because of the incorrect label, Chu said.
Taiwan cannot attend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference as a national delegation because it is not a UN member. ITRI will be Taiwan’s official voice at the two-week Copenhagen meeting, which opens on Monday. Chu will lead the delegation, while Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Deputy Minister Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) will attend as an adviser.
On the official listing of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) admitted to the conference on its official UNFCCC Web site, ITRI is shown as being from “China.”
ITRI had applied “in the name of a non-governmental organization of Taiwan, not as an industrial research institute of China,” Chu said, adding that the listing was a mistake by the UNFCCC secretariat and the institute had responded by filing a protest.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the EPA are now working on how Taiwan can participate in the Copenhagen conference with dignity, he said.
Three other Taiwanese NGOs — the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation, the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association — are also listed as being from China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) expressed regret over the listings.
“We would like to apply for the participation using the name Taiwan, but the UNFCCC secretariat would not recognize the title. Our negotiations with it turned out to be fruitless. We really regret this, but there is nothing we can do,” Lu told a press conference.
DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德), however, said the UNFCCC’s listing of ITRI as a Chinese NGO shows that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “diplomatic truce” policy had failed miserably because it had only encouraged Beijing to squeeze Taiwan off the world stage.
Lai urged academics and experts to keep Taiwan’s sovereignty in mind when trying to participate in international organizations.
“The ultimate blame is still on the Ma administration for setting a bad example by denigrating Taiwan’s status. The academics and experts were merely following the government’s footsteps,” he said.
Hsiao Hui-chuan (蕭慧娟), an executive secretary at the EPA responsible for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, said ITRI’s original application listed its address as “Hsinchu, R.O.C. (Taiwan).”
The information was then changed by the conference organizers without notifying the organization, she said.
“The minimum standard that would be acceptable to our government is ‘Chinese Taipei.’ The most ideal would, of course, be the ‘Republic of China,’” she said.
Government agencies would continue to try to attend environmental conferences under the nation’s formal name, she said.
“It doesn’t look like we will be able to attend the conference this month under the method both our agency and the foreign ministry had hoped for,” she added, referring to a Taiwanese delegation attending the World Health Assembly in May as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
COMPROMISED
The lack of official recognition will hinder the role Taiwan can play in reducing its emissions, which are estimated to be around 1 percent of the global total, officials said.
“Our county faces many problems from not being able to attend the conference as a government entity,” said Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬), deputy minister of the EPA. “This ranges from being unable to participate in global emissions trading to sharing expert dialogue.”
COMPETITIVENESS
EPA official Eric Liou (劉銘龍) said not attending could also risk undermining the nation’s economic competitiveness.
“If the conference results in a consensus on carbon emissions labeling on products, common standards in the manufacturing phase or other regulations … and [Taiwan] lacks access or information to it, we could really be at a disadvantage in the world economy,” Liou said.
UNOFFICIAL
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said not having a government official lead the delegation to Copenhagen was a way to safeguard Taiwan’s national dignity.
Ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said that since the UNFCCC still has ITRI listed as a non-governmental organization from “Hsinchu, China,” having a government official as the head delegate would indirectly legitimize the nomenclature that Taiwan is so strongly opposed to.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND FLORA WANG
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