This year's Environment Ministers Meeting ended yesterday with the signing of a declaration by Taiwan and seven Latin American countries agreeing to jointly devote themselves to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Taiwan will work closely with the other signatories to preserve forests, increase energy efficiency, seek alternative energy sources and monitor the environment.
"Today's the happiest day of my life," the Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Chang Kow-lung (
Chang said Taiwan's cooperation with these countries had been following the market allocation model, or the MARKAL model, which is an analytical tool developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to help countries manage energy use.
Since each country now faced fresh challenges, such as global climate change, a new strategy needed to be delivered, he said.
"The declaration covers a broader scope of issues and at the same time provides concrete action plans," he said.
Costa Rican Environment Minister Roberto Dobles, who is also the chairman of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), said that the declaration had created new challenges as well as new opportunities and invited Taiwan to invest in major environmental projects.
"We believe that the environment will eventually benefit from our efforts," Dobles said.
According to the declaration, Taiwan will establish an office within eight months to make direct contacts with each of the signatories of the declaration, namely Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
The EPA will seek to cooperate with these countries on potentially viable environmental and energy projects. It will also incorporate initiatives from the nation's public and private sectors to execute such projects.
During the two-day meeting, the administration also held bilateral meetings with each signatory.
As a result, the EPA discussed the possibility of establishing an environmental engineering department at the National University of Belize.
It also exchanged views with other countries about several crucial issues, such as monitoring air and water pollution, genetic engineering and recycling.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS