How Are Laws Enacted In Kiribati

Taiwan raises bar on tackling greenhouse gas emissions

At the just completed U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany, the general consensus of delegates was that to stop the looming climate crisis, greater efforts must be made to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. The UNFCCC believes the world must work together toward putting the brakes on climate change and formulating a revolutionary response to this most serious of challenges.

For the ROC government, this message—although not exactly new—reaffirms the value of its policies aimed at slashing national carbon dioxide outputs. It is an unavoidable fact of life that Taiwan, as an industrialized economy, contributes to this growing global problem. According to the Environmental Protection Administration, the island is responsible for roughly 1 percent of the world’s emissions per year.

As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan is taking aggressive steps to change this state of affairs. ROC President Ma Ying-jeou is consistently promoting his administration’s goals of reducing CO2 outputs and cutting energy intensity—a key factor in slowing resource depletion and building a sustainable energy future.

After Ma took office in May 2008, he announced his target of stabilizing Taiwan’s emissions at 2008 levels by 2020. The EPA later expanded this to a three-step target to bring the country’s outputs down to 2008 levels by 2020; to 2000 levels by 2025; and to half of 2000 levels by 2050.

The Legislature has played an important part in assisting the Ma administration to achieve its emissions goals. On June 12, 2009, it passed the Renewable Energy Act aimed at promoting the use of green power, diversifying supplies and helping reduce outputs. The new law authorizes the government to enhance incentives for the development of renewable sources like the sun, wind, water, biomass and biogas.

Lawmakers are also working on draft amendments to the Commodity Tax Act and Vehicle License Tax Act, which could boost sales of low-polluting vehicles in Taiwan and add further oomph to the nation’s drive to cut emissions and encourage industries to invest in developing low-carbon vehicles.

Proposed changes to the Commodity Tax Act will open a five-year window enabling motorists to save NT$25,000 (US$862) off the price of automobiles running on liquefied petroleum gas and gasoline. The Vehicle License Act revision greenlights local governments to grant license tax exemptions for electric vehicles.

Egypt: End military trials, scrap repressive laws | Amnesty ...

Speaking after his week-long visit to Egypt, his first official trip to the Middle East and North Africa, Salil Shetty called on the Egyptian authorities, including the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to use the post-Mubarak transition period to carry out urgent reforms and lift new repressive steps such as the law banning strikes and the use of military trials against civilians. “This is an incredible moment of opportunity for the Egyptian authorities to show they have made a clean break with past abuses,” said Salil Shetty. “And there have been some important encouraging steps, including the release of administrative detainees, the dissolution of the old State Security Investigation Services and the commitment for Egypt to become a party to the International Criminal Court.

Introduction to South Pacific law

Management of marine resources in Kiribati

South Pacific property law

Kiribati: Aspects of History

Environmental legislation review - Kiribati, 1993