The Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition visits the EU Centre to Discuss Taiwan’s, the EU’s and Young People’s Role in Combating Climate Change

Report by Boris Frešo and Marcus Gustafsson

On the 30 July, the European Union Centre in Taiwan had the pleasure of welcomingthree members from the Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition (TWYCC) , a nonprofit environmental organisation, to discuss climate change the upcoming UN summit in Paris in December. The European Union is a major and active participants actor in these negotiations, and is paying close attention to the current climate change situation. However, words are often not met with action, since despite the urgency of the matter, countries are having great difficulties in reaching agreement on how to respond concretely to the situation. In this regard, EUTW wishes to contribute to the discussion, and provide the opportunity for young Taiwanese students to share their ideas and suggestions.

We sat down together at the EUTW offices just before lunch. First of all, our colleague Marcus, who also coordinates the YMCA Resource Group the Environment,an international youth advocacy group, introduced and spoke about the EU’s climate change targets.The EU continues to be highly ambitious in its fight against climate change compared to most other countries. For instance, all of the EU members have ratified the so-called Kyoto Protocol. They met their targets under the first commitment period (2007-2012) and all signed up for the second (2012-2020), to continue this work. In particular,in the next 15 years it is planning to reduce the GHG emissions by 40% in comparison with their 1990 levels. Having pledged such a commitment, the challenge now remains of how to encourage the rest of the world to undertake similar targets at the summit in Paris, especially among rich nations.

However,during the discussion it was correctly pointed out that even within the EU circlesthere might be some obstacles to dealing with climate change. For example, countries from the former Eastern Bloc do not always find common ground with the other members, mainly because their development experience was slightly different from western Europe. The socialist planning was primarily focused on heavy industry which subsequently led to serious environmental damage and heavy pollution. Most of these countries have not transformed their outdated power plants and other facilities, often built inthe Soviet era. Not only do this mean that coal plants continue to emit large amounts of carbon emissions, but there is also a security dimension to be considered in relation to their old nuclear plants. For example, Austria, who is the neighbor of several eastern bloc countries admitted to the Union in 2004, often raise objections in this area. Fortunately, even though the eastern countries do not intend to give up nuclear energy, they are promoting innovation in this area. Currently, the development of a new type of nuclear reactor is underway (Project Allegro), which could improve the security and minimise the nuclear waste.

Whether nuclear is an acceptable alternative as we transition to a low-carbon economy was much debated. While the recent Fukushima accident illustrate the disastrous consequences of a nuclear meltdown, it was also argued that this poses less risks than the alternative, which is a continued reliance on goal and gas, leading to more severe climate change.

Taiwan’s role in tackling climate change was also discussed. The executive Yuan recently passed a law, establishing targets to reduce emissions, even though Taiwan is not able to officially participate in the international UN climate negotiations. The best proof that Taiwan is not closing its eyes and ignoring this global challenge is the young generation, which is highly concerned about the threat posed by climate change. The TWYCC primarily focus on outreach activities, to help bring the topic closer to the public, and supporting dialogue both at the national and international level. In order to achieve this, the organisationorganises various activities for students and have partaken as official civil society observers at the UN climate negotiations. They plan to send up to six people to the upcoming conference in Paris.

At the end of the session, while enjoying our lunch together, we had the opportunity to further discuss future cooperation, in particular around the Paris conference to which the YMCA will also be sending youth delegates. The YMCA is hosting Camp Climate – a dedicated space for youth to live and coordinate their advocacy together during the conference, in the hope of strengthening youth participation. Here in Taiwan, the TWYCC is hosting a simulation of negotiations next week already (7-9th of August) to which our two interns were cordially invited. The event aims to introduce members to how the UN conference operates by simulating negotiations, side-events, speeches and actions.

Finally, on behalf of the EUTW, we would like to thank our guests from TWYCC for visiting us, and we wish them a successful, enriching, and of course safe trip to Paris in November.