Paris COP 21, Race to the Top, Not the Bottom

Together, these countries account for about 1/3 of global total GHG emissions (CAIT/WRI, 2014). With this magnitude of emissions, industrialized Asian countries' positions will be critical to the success of a new climate treaty that aims to keep global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. However, submitted countries' INDCs against projected business-as- usual (BAU) levels makes absolute emissions changes across countries less clear. To investigate this, these INDCs were translated into absolute emissions changes by 2030 against a baseline year of 2005. From this comparison, it is evident that the top industrial emitters in Asia have less ambitious goals than most other countries and that their emissions will not meet the mitigation goals required. To keep the global 2°C goal within reach, industrialized Asian countries need to commit to greater reductions in emissions. Taking initiative towards this, Taiwan recently committed to a nationally determined and legally binding mitigation goal - 50 by 50 aiming to cut its emissions to at least 50% of 2005 levels by 2050 with a compulsory five-year interval review to modify its goals in order to be in line with global 2 C goal endeavor(EPA Taiwan, 2015)