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Taiwan Finds A Way Into The World Climate Dialogue Despite China

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When Taiwan tried to get into U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change last  year, officials in Taipei figured why not. Their government had a constitution, armed forces and a foreign ministry, all hallmarks of a country like any other signatory to the 25-year-old convention. Taiwan says it has expertise and resolve to cut carbon dioxide emissions, perfect for a role in the U.N.-driven process for global greenhouse gas reductions.

But China is part of the world emissions-cutting process too and regards Taiwan as part of Chinese turf rather than its own country entitled to membership in U.N. agencies. More than 170 countries side with China diplomatically. Taiwan can look to just 20. As a result, the heavily-industrialized western Pacific island of 23 million people didn’t get into the convention.

Taiwan at least knows this old story of being blocked from U.N. agencies, so this month it came up with a clever way to get as close as possible to the climate change talks, known as the 23rd conference of the parties, in Bonn and score some international attention including what one official told me was an implied nod from the U.N. itself. 

Not invited, but Taiwan sort of sends a delegation 

The government sent a 20-person delegation to the conference in Bonn to hold 31 side events, more than in 2015 and 2016 when Taiwan had chased previous climate conferences, a representative of the Environmental Protection Administration says. Taiwan also tested guerrilla diplomacy in May when it sent a delegation to Geneva for the World Health Assembly, another U.N.-sanctioned event where China had barred entry.

Some of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies went to the U.N. for permission for Taiwan to hold events, and everyone knew why they were asking, the EPA representative says. Fourteen diplomatic allies also wrote letters to the 197 Convention parties urging that Taiwan “should not be excluded” from the convention, the EPA said in a Chinese-language statement Monday.

The travelers from Taiwan met people of their rank from the United States, northern Europe, the Philippines and South Pacific island countries during events shadowing the Nov. 6-17 convention, says Wu Kun-yuh, a lawmaker who attended for two days. In case the political types didn't grab foreign attention, Taiwan's Buddhist charity Tzu Chi was on site touting vegetarianism as an environmental measure and industry people talked up electric vehicles.

Taiwan's delegation wanted other countries to know about their methods of controlling pollution, such as using new energy sources and trying to get manufacturers on their side.  

Taiwan also didn't hide its own greenhouse gas emissions goals: 2% less than 2005 levels by 2020 all the way up to 50% less by 2050. Stricter than other countries? The Paris Agreement, which the Convention countries hope to enforce, calls for keeping any global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, if not more, within this century.

Lasting impressions?

It didn't matter whether Taiwan looked greener than anyone else, says Yuan Shao-ying, executive secretary with the EPA’s greenhouse gases section. “We’re in a global village, on the same boat,” he says. “You can’t say what I reduce is better or yours is better.”

Impressions left on other parts of the world? "Taiwan is pretty proactive, and it's a country that can do things," the legislator says.

"I think it'd be  better if Taiwan could attend the real meetings," Wu says. Still, he adds, "Taiwan has made a lot of strong efforts. We have some experience we can share with developing countries."