Legislators, experts and climate advocates yesterday launched the “Climate Team Taiwan” initiative, calling for a comprehensive legal framework for climate governance and stronger nationwide dedication to a “sustainable future.”
The initiative was launched at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, featuring representatives of the legislature’s UN Sustainable Development Goals Advisory Council, the International Climate Development Institute and National Taiwan University’s Biodiversity Research Center.
In a report issued on Aug. 9, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that global temperatures are rising rapidly, institute executive director Camyale Chao (趙恭岳) said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
By 2040, experts expect average surface temperatures to have risen by 1.5oC, with the most pessimistic estimates predicting a rise of 5.7oC by 2100, Chao quoted the report as saying.
The best outcomes are only possible if carbon emissions are reduced to net-zero by about 2050, he added.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), who leads the council, urged swift and united action in instituting climate policies.
He urged the mainstreaming of climate concerns, saying that the issue should be deeply rooted in popular consciousness so that people associate their daily activity with its effects on the planet.
In the future, no individual will be able to face climate change alone, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.
This is where governments should step in, supporting society, industries and individuals by providing scientific information and making infrastructure more resilient to climate change, Hung said.
Comprehensive climate legislation is like a vaccine, with policies and laws generating antibodies to cope with the most extreme risks brought by climate change, he said.
In addition, ministries should work together so that everyone, from the upper levels of government down to each individual, can understand climate issues, he added.
Climate Team Taiwan aims to convey two sentiments: Everyone shares the same fate, and everyone has a role to play, DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said.
Climate change is expected to affect everyone through water shortages, food pricing and other developments, she said.
Hopefully as people begin to feel the effects of climate change in their everyday lives, they would carry on the sentiments represented by Climate Team Taiwan, she added.
‘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 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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS