To mark 2014 World Environment Day, the EPA held a release ceremony for its documentary film, One Earth, One Chance on 5 June. Also on 8 June, the EPA planted trees and pledged to reduce carbon to save the Earth. The documentary explains the measures Taiwan’s citizens are adopting in their daily lives to mitigate climate change, and also introduces the cooperative plans, past and future, that Taiwan has drawn up with its allies among the small island nations of the South Pacific. These plans are a response to the United Nations’ call for nations around the world to join forces to fight climate change. Ambassadors from some small island developing nations and representatives of other nations or state governments were invited to participate in the events. Documentary released to share with the world what Taiwan has done for the 2014 World Environment Day Challenge In the face of global climate change and the threat of rising sea levels, there is not a moment to lose for international cooperation in environmental protection. At the screening ceremony EPA Minister Kuo-Yen Wei spoke about how the United Nations (UN) declared 2014 to be the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in order to raise awareness about the forthcoming climate change-induced challenges that these nations face due to their topography. The slogan for this year’s World Environment Day is “Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level” and the UN is using this message to urge the international community to take action to assist the SIDS in coping with the increasing threats that they face, of which climate change is the greatest. Ambassadors of Kiribati, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu, and a representative of the State of Hawaii Office in Taipei were invited to the screening, where they jointly urged the world to focus more upon the crisis that the SIDS face. Also present at the screening were the internationally famous environmental artist Vincent J.F. Huang and the entertainer Chris Downs, who is originally from Canada and now married and residing in Taiwan. Both of them spoke to the audience about how the film had affected them. The four challenges of the 2014 World Environment Day raised by the United Nations Environment Programme were: power down, reduce food footprints, go greener, and purge plastics, all of which the citizens of Taiwan have already been doing in their daily lives for many years. The EPA therefore decided to release its documentary One Earth, One Chance on World Environment Day to help people around the world better understand the mindset of Taiwan’s residents toward environmental protection. The documentary includes interviews with the ambassador of Tuvalu, the artist Vincent J.F. Huang and Ms. Yu-Juan Wu, a Taiwan environmental volunteer who works overseas, in which they discuss climate change and how the SIDS are responding. As the documentary’s main narrator, Chris Downs comments from the perspective of a foreign spouse on the many different aspects of environmental protection to be found all over Taiwan. Taiwan’s cooperation commitment to cooperate with Pacific island allies In addition to screening the documentary, the EPA also used the occasion to reiterate Taiwan’s commitment to implementing cooperative projects with six Pacific island nations. The projects include: Clean energy: Lighting every community with renewable energy. Food security: Sending an agricultural technical mission to each nation. Medical and sanitation: Sending a mobile medical mission to each nation. Education: Establishing partnerships with each nation to improve local education. EPA Minister Kuo-Yen Wei also asked the ambassadors and representatives of nations and local governments in attendance to join him in a small ceremony in which everyone called out "Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level" to express their determination to tackle climate change. EPA planted trees and pledged to reduce carbon to save the Earth on World Environment Day The annual World Environment Day is also the anniversary of the enactment of Taiwan’s Environmental Education Act. It has been three years since the implementation of the act. Statistics show that as of 30 April 2014, the cumulative number of person-hours spent participating in environmental education activities had reached nearly 90 million, with a total of 84 environmental education facilities, 19 environmental education institutes and 3,125 certified environmental education personnel actively participating in environmental education. Through these activities, environmental awareness has been raised and the public is encouraged to take actions to face the challenge of climate change. Capitalizing on this rare occasion, on 8 June 2014, the EPA went to Taoyuan County to hold celebration activities for World Environment Day. Minister Kuo-Yen Wei, accompanied by ambassadors from Tuvalu and Kiribati, and representatives from the American Institute in Taiwan, the State of Hawaii Office in Taipei, the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, Minister Bao-ji Chen of the Council of Agriculture, Director General Tao-Sheng Lee of the Forestry Bureau, and Director General Shyh-Wei Chen of the Taoyuan County Environmental Protection Bureau, planted trees and signed the “Reduce Carbon to Save the Earth” pledge. The EPA also invited these ambassadors and representatives to visit the Laojei River to witness how the Taoyuan County Government has spared no efforts in improving the living conditions of its people. At the site, the ambassadors and representatives were requested to write a World Environment Day pledge in the language of their respective countries. Thus, through the tree-planting ceremony, the “Reduce Carbon to Save the Earth” pledge was implemented, while Taiwan showed its determination to face climate change with the rest of the world. Excerpt from Environmental Policy Monthly, 17 (6)