Taiwan, which imports more than 97 percent of its energy needs, might benefit from adopting well-established modeling methods to advance its energy technology, Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said yesterday.
An international technical conference on Global and Regional Energy Modeling, hosted jointly by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and Energy Technologies Systems Analysis Program (ETSAP) under the International Energy Agency (IEA), kicked off yesterday at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.
When giving a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the four-day conference, Wu said that oil prices have been increasing significantly and well-designed energy policies at both the global and regional levels are needed urgently by most countries.
"The link between the use of energy and environmental changes, such as climate change and acid rain, has been confirmed," Wu said.
"We hope to reach conclusions from the conference as an essential reference point for Taiwan's review of existing energy policies at a coming National Energy Conference in June," Wu added.
In addition, Wu said conclusions drawn from the four-day conference might help map out future strategies for Taiwan to upgrade its energy industries.
First established in 1976, ETSAP is an implemention agreement of the IEA.
It functions as a consortium of member country teams who are invited to cooperate on establishing, maintaining and expanding a consistent, multinational and analytical capability in terms of energy, economy and the environment.
According to the EPA, the conference is designed to provide a platform for participants in sharing their modeling tools and results on global energy development, multinational and regional energy planning, and international cooperation in climate change mitigation.
Representatives from more than 30 countries in Europe, North America, Central America and Asia will discuss strategies for greenhouse gas emission reduction.
EPA Minister Chang Juu-en (張祖恩) said at the conference that human activities, especially those that have depleted the limited amount of fossil fuel over the last 50 years, have exploited the planet, and that it may not recover because the damage is irreversible.
"Therefore, to ensure Taiwan's future sustainability, we should consider relying more on renewable energy," Chang said.
Taiwan has worked on the promotion of solar energy and wind power.
Beginning last month, the EPA has offered subsidies to local bureaus in 13 jurisdictions for using renewable diesel fuel for garbage trucks.
EPA officials stressed that biodegradable fuel can be used directly without refitting vehicles in advance.
Officials said that using such renewable energy has been adopted in many advanced countries to improve air quality, because exhaust from vehicles would be dramatically reduced.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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