Taiwan ranks seventh among nations most severely affected by climate change, said an annual report released on Thursday at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.
The report was published by Germanwatch, a non-profit, non-governmental development and environmental organization that lobbies for sustainable global development.
The report, titled Global Climate Risk Index 2018, analyzed the extent to which nations have been affected by weather-related events such as storms, flooding and heat waves.
It used data gathered from 1997 to last year.
In January last year, Taiwan was hit by a rare wave of low temperatures, followed by six tropical storms and typhoons later in the year, Germanwatch said.
The surge in Taiwan’s ranking from 51st last year underscores the vulnerability of small island states and poor countries when facing extreme events, Germanwatch said.
Taiwan was called “Chinese Taipei” in the ranking.
The top six most-affected nations were Haiti, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India.
Since 1997, more than 520,000 people have been killed by more than 11,000 extreme weather events around the world, it said.
Data show that extreme weather events have become more frequent and severe due to climate change, coauthor David Eckstein said, citing Fiji’s worst hurricane in a century and severe flooding in Germany last year as examples.
The 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change began on Monday last week and is to conclude on Friday.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the