Taiwan excluded from climate summit sets up ‘war room’ to monitor talks

Environment Minister Peng Chi-ming said on Friday that Taiwan had set up a “war room” to monitor live streaming of next week’s COP29 climate summit after it was not allowed to attend for political reasons.

Democratically governed Taiwan is excluded from almost all international organizations due to objections from China, which views the island as its own territory rather than a country and demands the right to speak on its behalf on the international stage, infuriating the government. in Taipei.

Speaking to foreign media at his ministry in Taipei, Peng said it was a shame that Taiwan, as a major semiconductor manufacturer and due to its own climate concerns, could not officially attend the climate summit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

“We cannot participate in the negotiations, I think it is sad for us,” he told foreign reporters in Taipei.

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“I am not allowed to attend this meeting for political reasons. But we are a good friend of the global community. I will not disturb them because I want to attend,” added Peng, a trained meteorologist who has attended 11 COPs before. He entered the government in May.

He said some low-level officials from Taiwan and people from think tanks would go, but otherwise the ministry would gather in a specially prepared conference room to monitor the summit.

“We will have a war room here,” added Peng, who has a doctorate in atmospheric physics. “We’ll have people watching it all from noon until night.”

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Taiwan has a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, and President Lai Ching-te has established a climate change response committee to map out government plans.

As the world warms, the expectation for subtropical Taiwan is for stronger, more damaging typhoons or for typhoons to bypass the island entirely, which would be just as bad given its dependence on storms to fill reservoirs, Peng said.

In 2021, Taiwan faced the most severe drought in history after no typhoons the previous year.

“Taiwan both loves and hates typhoons,” the minister said.