Taiwan has not only the responsibility but also the technology to combat global warming, the Luxembourg Green Party said yesterday while announcing its support for Taiwan to become a member of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a press conference in Taipei.
“The Greens support Taiwan’s participation in the UNFCCC — it’s important to solve together an issue that is a global issue,” said Felix Braz, vice-president of the Green Party caucus in the Luxembourg parliament.
“Taiwan is especially important because you’re one of the most developed countries. Like Luxembourg, you’re part of the problem, so you have to be part of the solution,” he said. “Not only because you have the responsibility, but also because you have the technology [to combat global warming] — you’re very active in exporting those technologies.”
Braz said that developed countries like Taiwan and Luxembourg are part of the problem because it is developed countries that produce the most carbon emissions, while all countries have to suffer the consequences.
Braz said he disagreed with the view that emissions are an inevitable result of economic development and that green energy would have a negative impact on the economy.
In the past two years, more than 1 million jobs had been created in renewable energy industries in Germany, he said.
“Renewable energy is not a job killer. Job killers are those who say things do not need to be changed, job creators are those who are investing in new technologies,” he said. “Our economy would be better, more efficient, less dependent on others. Our economy would not be subject to uncontrolled inflation that we did not create if we invest more into renewable energy.”
Asked about his meeting with Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), Braz said he disagreed with Shen’s view that nuclear energy is clean and efficient.
“Nuclear energy is very expensive. You can develop much more forms of efficient renewable energy with that money,” he said. “Right now, we still don’t know what we can do with the waste, we can only hide it. It’s a dangerous technology.”
Meanwhile, Green Party Taiwan spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) urged the government to fulfill its promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Taiwan already has three times more greenhouse gas emissions than the global average. Yet, newly approved industrial zone projects and those pending approval would create 65 million tonnes more emissions in future,” Pan said.
“Such highly polluting projects must be stopped,” he said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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