Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) European officials urged the Taiwanese government and businesses to start taking pragmatic measures to tackle the climate change challenge as Taiwan's carbon dioxide emissions are drawing international concern.
Taiwanese officials and corporations know very well how serious the emissions are, and understand the linkages between those emissions and climate change, but neither are taking action to meet the challenge, said Frederic Laplanche, deputy head of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei.
"Neither of the two leading candidates in next year's presidential election has put forward specific proposals to reduce Taiwan's high -- and growing -- emissions, " said Michael Reilly, Director of the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) in Taipei, in a conference discussing media coverage of the climate change issue.
"According to an opinion piece in a local newspaper last Sunday, Taiwan is now the world's third highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, behind only the United States and Australia, " Reilly noted, adding that there has been surprisingly little discussion of the impact of global warming on Taiwan.
Taiwan, which is not a Kyoto Protocol signatory and cannot be a signatory to the successor to the Kyoto Treaty because it is not a United Nations member, produces one percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.
Taiwanese officials, including Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) Minister Steve Chen, did not refuse to tackle the issue during discussions with European officials, but some government officials did speak against setting specific targets for cutting emissions, said Edward Dallas, head of BTCO's political and economic section.
The people of Taiwan, especially businessmen and government officials, have to understand that their actions to reduce emissions will have a short-term negative impact on business, but in the long run it is something they must do, Laplanche said.
A possible carbon tax and an import ban on countries which are seen to be "unfriendly to emission mitigation" will impact Taiwanese companies which want to trade in the European market in the future, he said.
According to an European Union (EU) public opinion poll, approximately 87 percent of EU citizens are concerned with climate change, Laplanche said, and that public support is the driving force behind the EU's determination to tackle the climate change issue head-on.
The EU has made a commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to its 1990 levels and a deeper absolute reduction after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.