The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is considering adding climate action and animal rights issues to its policy platform for the first time, as it prepares to debate KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) proposed policy guidelines during its National Congress on Saturday, a source said.
Chu, who won the KMT chairperson election on Sept. 25, has proposed new policy guidelines that include animal protection and climate action, the source said.
A draft of the guidelines has not yet been publicized, but a party member familiar with it said many of the issues it addresses demonstrate Chu’s commitment to connect the party with society and young people.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
In a section on social justice, the party for the first time advocates for protecting animals, such as by bolstering law enforcement of illegal animal smuggling and encouraging people to adopt pets instead of buying them from breeders, the person said.
The plans can be viewed as extensions of Chu’s policies during his term as New Taipei City mayor from 2010 to 2018, when he called for an end to animal euthanasia, established a task force on animal protection policing and a neuter-vaccinate-return mechanism for stray animals, and encouraged pet stores to set up adoption areas, the person said.
The proposed policy guidelines also for the first time address emerging technologies, specifically blockchain applications, which shows that the party is staying abreast of trends, they added.
It also calls for more action to address the effects of climate change, asking the government to write climate action into the Constitution and revise the nation’s carbon reduction goals with reference to the EU’s “carbon border” mechanism, the person said.
While vice premier from 2009 to 2010, Chu was the first convener of an Executive Yuan committee on energy conservation and carbon reduction, they said.
During his campaign for the KMT nomination for last year’s presidential election, Chu also called for adding climate justice and environmental rights to the Constitution, the person said, adding that he was the nation’s first politician to launch such an initiative.
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