It is difficult to know whether the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) announcement last week that Taiwan plans to present a "green" initiative during next month's APEC forum was some kind of joke.
After all, Taiwan has doubled its carbon dioxide emissions since 1990, the baseline year of the Kyoto Protocol, while the government -- if we are to believe environmental groups -- recently reshuffled its environmental review commission in order to rid it of anyone opposed to development on environmental grounds. This came soon after the president told an association of industrialists that "the government should not make environmental protection policy so stringent as to force out enterprises."
If the nation were really serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions, tackling climate change and reducing its dependence on energy imports, then it would have already begun to make better use of emission-free power sources, including the vast amounts of untapped potential it possesses in solar, hydroelectric and geothermal power generation.
It would also be trying to reduce the amount of power it generates using fossil fuels, which the Bureau of Energy (BOE) puts at 68 percent.
Taiwan has more than 100 geothermal sites but so far only small-scale experimental geothermal power generation. In contrast, Iceland uses its geothermal resources to great effect, heating around 90 percent of all homes and also generating electricity.
Taiwan receives a lot of sunlight and is a big producer of solar panels, but we do not have any large-scale solar power plants.
We could also better utilize hydroelectric power; currently just 15 percent of national power is generated in this way. In contrast, Norway, a country with similar terrain, generates 99 percent of its needs through hydroelectricity.
Wind-generated energy, although on the increase, does not yet make up a single percentage point.
Another emission-free option is nuclear power, which despite its controversial nature, should not be ruled out as it may be the best choice if Taiwan is really serious about reducing emission levels quickly.
But instead of concentrating on domestic issues and tackling the causes of climate change, officials like EPA Minister Winston Dang (
While this is undoubtedly true, whining about it will not solve anything.
If Taiwan were to forge ahead with its own investment in renewables and become a world leader in certain fields, then other countries would come knocking at our door, regardless of what China says.
Not being a member of international bodies means there are no restrictions on what we can do. Taiwan should put its engineers to work and use their skills in innovation in the renewable energy sector, while setting itself ambitious targets for renewable energy.
Instead, the BOE has set itself a target to double the percentage of electricity generated by renewable energy sources to a measly 10 percent by 2010.
While it is okay to promote green initiatives at APEC if you are serious about environmental issues, it is not okay if back home you are on the verge of allowing Formosa Plastics and CPC Corp, Taiwan to open new plants that environmentalists claim will raise Taiwan's emissions by a further 40 percent.
If the government wants to preach to other nations, then it should stop bowing to the demands of industrialists and curtail its Jekyll and Hyde attitude toward the environment, otherwise no one will ever be able to take it seriously.
China badly misread Japan. It sought to intimidate Tokyo into silence on Taiwan. Instead, it has achieved the opposite by hardening Japanese resolve. By trying to bludgeon a major power like Japan into accepting its “red lines” — above all on Taiwan — China laid bare the raw coercive logic of compellence now driving its foreign policy toward Asian states. From the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas to the Himalayan frontier, Beijing has increasingly relied on economic warfare, diplomatic intimidation and military pressure to bend neighbors to its will. Confident in its growing power, China appeared to believe
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
Recent media reports have again warned that traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies are disappearing and might vanish altogether within the next 15 years. Yet viewed through the broader lens of social and economic change, the rise and fall — or transformation — of industries is rarely the result of a single factor, nor is it inherently negative. Taiwan itself offers a clear parallel. Once renowned globally for manufacturing, it is now best known for its high-tech industries. Along the way, some businesses successfully transformed, while others disappeared. These shifts, painful as they might be for those directly affected, have not necessarily harmed society
Legislators of the opposition parties, consisting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Friday moved to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德). They accused Lai of undermining the nation’s constitutional order and democracy. For anyone who has been paying attention to the actions of the KMT and the TPP in the legislature since they gained a combined majority in February last year, pushing through constitutionally dubious legislation, defunding the Control Yuan and ensuring that the Constitutional Court is unable to operate properly, such an accusation borders the absurd. That they are basing this
RSS