David on Formosa

Today I attended the Climate change: Taiwan cares! action in Taipei. It was part of an international day of action with protests taking place in 45 countries around the world.

There were only a few hundred people at the action which took place at Da'an Forest Park in Taipei and later marched along Xinyi Road to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). While the numbers may have been lacking, enthusiasm certainly wasn't. I was impressed by the number of children involved — some of them performed street theatre as part of the action. 

This young protestor is holding a mock copy of the Kyoto Protocol. Taiwan is not a signatory as it is not a member of the UN. The other two countries that have not signed the protocol are the USA and Australia. These countries are all among the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis. 

I met Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲), a Green Party candidate for the Taipei City Council. He has a blog (in Chinese) and recently had an opinion piece about climate change published in the Taipei Times.

The Taipei Times has an article today on the need for Taiwan to take more action in the light of the recent Stern Review. There is also an article by George Monbiot about the urgent need to  take action to reduce the impacts of climate change. More photos of the protest in Taipei today can be found in this photo set at flickr.