President Ma Ying-jeou says that Taiwan is working to reduce CO2 emissions. Ma was speaking Monday, ahead of the UN climate summit to be held in Paris on November 30th, local time.
Ma said that while Taiwan is not a signatory of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), Taiwan’s government is willing to abide by the rules to be introduced by the international community.
Ma also said the government has taken an important step by implementing a CO2 reduction and management law in July.
"We hope that our efforts to build low-carbon cities in New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Yilan will continue and reach completion in the future. Penghu and Kinmen will also be turned into low-carbon islands," Ma said. "[We] hope to complete a low-carbon community that covers northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan by 2020. We will take concrete actions to cut CO2 emissions and save energy."
Ma said he has put a greater emphasis on energy saving since taking office in 2000. Last week, the president, premier, and other government officials inspected facilities aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.