Secretariat, Taipei City Government

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) experts to visit Taiwan from March 26th to 29th this year. In the afternoon of March 27th, they visited Mayor Ko Wen-je.
 
Members of the delegation included Dr. Patrick Paul Walsh, Senior Consultant of UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Mr. Joseph Kevin Healy, a lawyer specializing in the environment and energy, and Dr. Lucia Rodriguez, director of the Global Development Practice Master Program Office. The delegation hoped this visit would help them understand Taiwan’s sustainable development and environmental protection policies and our contribution to 2030 Agenda issues.
 
At the beginning of the meeting, the Department of Environmental Protection described Taipei City's sustainable development policies and implementation. Dr. Walsh then described the UN Sustainable Development Goals and progress that has been made. Dr. Walsh praised the Taipei City government for setting up a public–private sector platform to discuss common indicators and setting appropriate goals for the city. He also suggested that Taiwan could integrate indicators from various cities in Taiwan to determine the overall goal for the country.
 
Dr. Lucia Rodriguez suggested integrating the concept of sustainable development in the education system or setting up SDG-related courses to educate the next generation about this issue; in this way, the government could cultivate leaders of sustainable development for a long time into the future. Dr. Rodriguez also said that the delegation would be going to National Taiwan University to negotiate the establishing of an SDG-related Master’s programme at the university.
 
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Ko asked about the current situation and the ranking of SDGs in participating cities around the world. Dr. Walsh said that only 52 cities in the United States are taking part, and that the World Bank has also ranked cities that implement SDGs. Thomas Shun-Kuei Chan, deputy director of the Department of Environmental Protection, added that, although the city has not yet participated in SDGs, the department has set a sustainable development target and plans to work with NTU to participate in SDGs.
 
Also invited to the meeting were local government officials from other cities, including New Taipei City, Taoyuan City and Tainan City, who came to listen and share their experience of sustainable development in local government.