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Excluded from COP26, Taiwan seeks to engage from the sidelines
- Delegation led by deputy environment minister Shen Chih-hsiu is holding events and meetings in Glasgow
- It comes after the US secretary of state called for the island to have a greater role at the United Nations
As the world’s powers wrestle over the future of the planet in Glasgow, another politically fractious issue will play out on the sidelines of the COP26 summit – Taiwan’s exclusion from international organisations.
Two weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Taiwan to have a greater role at the United Nations, a delegation from Taipei, led by deputy environment minister Shen Chih-hsiu, is set to test whether countries are willing to engage with them on the sidelines of the summit and risk igniting the ire of Beijing.
Shen pointed to the changing atmosphere in the US and Europe’s relations with China and said there was an increasing likelihood Taiwan would be allowed to attend future COP summits as an observer.
“The climate convention emphasises that every country should shoulder responsibility” for cutting emissions, Shen said in a telephone interview from Glasgow on Friday. “If any country is left out, it’s incomplete,” he said. “This isn’t fair to Taiwan, which is willing to shoulder the responsibility.”
The United Nations climate conference runs until November 12.
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First COP26 pledge: world leaders agree to end deforestation by 2030
First COP26 pledge: world leaders agree to end deforestation by 2030
Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations and is therefore unable to join other states at the summit. Instead, Shen and his team will hold events and meetings on the sidelines in an effort to highlight what the island is doing to combat climate change and engage with attendees.
Blinken’s comments last month were the latest US appeal for Taiwan to have “meaningful participation” in the UN system, such as the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization. China hit back at Blinken, saying US support for Taiwan violated the “one China” understanding between Beijing and Washington and could bring “huge risks”.
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‘One China’ explained
‘One China’ explained
Taiwan had previously sent delegations to global climate change conventions as non-governmental organisation observers under the name of the Taipei-based Industrial Technology Research Institute.
There were no plans to strongly protest the island’s exclusion in Glasgow, Shen said.
“We want to be contributors, not troublemakers,” he said.
While it is unable to sign up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announced that the government was planning ways to reach the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In October, Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration proposed revisions to enshrine the goal into law.
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