Taiwan to establish 50 low-carbon villages by 2011

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan said on Friday it would establish 50 low-carbon villages next year to help cut emissions 30 percent by 2020, another step in the diplomatically isolated island's quest for a United Nations role.

The move by the developed island, known as a global electronics manufacturing center, dovetails with its goal to win approval for U.N. climate change participation, which has been repeatedly blocked by China, analysts say.

At least two village-level districts in every city or county in Taiwan will be asked to cut emissions by limiting short trips by car or scooter, promoting electric vehicles, requiring low-energy appliances or recycling more waste, the island's Environmental Protection Administration said.

The island of 23 million people aims to establish six low-carbon cities by 2014, the EPA said.

The program, funded by central and local governments, would move Taiwan closer to its goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions island-wide by 2020 to 2005 levels of about 257 million metric tonnes, at least 30 percent below 2020 "business-as-usual" emissions.

"Villages should be able to cut power usage by at least 1 or 2 percent," said Lu Hung-kuang, an executive secretary under the EPA. "We'll see reductions for sure in 2010."

Taiwan, blocked by political rival and economic powerhouse China from joining U.N. agencies, is taking a series of steps to cut CO2 emissions for global attention that could help its bid to participate in the U.N. 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, analysts say.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other people in bureaucracy have that kind of long-term vision," said George Tsai, political scientist at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei.

As relations between China and self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, thaw to their warmest in six decades, Chinese officials have allowed the island to observe two annual meetings of World Health Organization bodies.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Ron Popeski)