Taiwan has set up a “war room” to watch the live stream of next week’s COP29 climate summit, because it is not allowed to attend for political reasons, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said.
Taiwan is excluded from almost all international bodies due to objections from China.
“We cannot join the negotiations, which I think is a pity for us,” said Peng, a meteorologist by training who had attended 11 previous COP summits before he entered the government in May.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Given that Taiwan is a major producer of semiconductors with its own climate worries, it is a shame that no senior Taiwanese officials could go to the climate summit in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, he said.
“I am not allowed to join because of political reasons, despite Taiwan being a good friend of global society. I will not bother them because I want to join,” Peng added.
There would be some lower-level officials and think tank academics from Taiwan in attendance, but otherwise the ministry would be watching the summit from a conference room set up for this purpose, he said.
“We will have a war room here,” Peng said. “From noon to night we will have people watching all of it.”
Taiwan aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. President William Lai (賴清德) has set up a climate change response committee to map out the government’s plans.
With the world warming, Taiwan can expect stronger, more damaging typhoons. Alternatively, typhoons might skip the nation totally, which would be equally bad given Taiwan’s reliance on storms to fill up its reservoirs, Peng said.
In 2021, Taiwan faced its most serious water shortage since modern records began after no typhoons hit the previous year.
“Taiwan both loves and hates typhoons,” the minister said.
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