The United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP15, was held last month at BELLA CENTER, Copenhagen, Denmark, with participants including 119 presidents and more than 30,000 representatives from 193 countries around the world. In the summit, climate change policies were discussed; 5 countries, including U.S.A., China, India, South Africa, and Brazil, signed Copenhagen Accord. The Accord signifies 48 percent of CO₂ emissions could be controlled, although not all countries agreed on it.

TISE Chairman Dr. Eugene Chien led the 10 student ambassadors for climate change chosen from a total of 1,026 participants in National Campus Carbon Reduction Seminar Tour held in 10 campuses across the island with backgrounds in finance, education, chemical engineering, biology, and design, attended COP15 as the observers of NGOs to report the firsthand information to Taiwan government. Also, the student ambassadors visited University of Copenhagen and Lund University for academic purposes. During their energy tour, they even marched with 40,000 participants to articulate Taiwanese people’s concern about climate change to the world. The precious information and valuable experiences that they brought to Taiwan will be shared in this forum.

Taiwan is not part of the UN and not under international conventions; however, Taiwan’s CO₂ emissions are so high that it ranks the 22^nd in the world. In the future, industries of all countries must undergo transformation in response to the impending world oil shortage, promote green industries, and levy carbon taxes on imported goods. Moreover, now many countries have invested in green technology and cultivated professionals. As for export-oriented Taiwanese businesses, the reduction of emissions on exported products would become a crucial concern. Finally, since customers have come to enjoy low-carbon lifestyle, “low-carbon” products would replace cheap ones to go mainstream.

The Experience Sharing Forum will be held this Saturday from 9:00 to 12:30 am in the Conference Room of TISE (4F., No.35, Ln. 11, Guangfu N. Rd., Songshan Dist., Taipei City). Honored guests, including TISE Chairman Dr. Eugene Chien; Dr. Ku Young, president of the Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering; and Dr. Tzu-lun Lin, professor of Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University, will be invited to shed light on this issue. You are cordially invited to participate in the forum this Saturday.