Lawmakers yesterday agreed on a regulation requiring the government reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2005 levels by 2025 to 2030.
Consensus was reached during a meeting of the legislature's Sanitation and Environment and Social Welfare committees to review a greenhouse gas emissions reduction bill.
While the debate revolved around whether the proposed regulation was too harsh or to weak compared with international standards, lawmakers were able to reach a consensus and agree on the measures the nation should adopt to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
The bill will be presented to the legislature for consideration.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Jung-chang (
"The bill will be meaningless without the inclusion of reduction targets. If we were proposing this bill from a business point of view, we wouldn't bother enacting it," KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) said.
Wang Jung-chang criticized the regulation calling for "a very low standard." For his part, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Shin-yuan (
"We should also aim to bring emissions back to 1990 levels, when the Kyoto Protocol was signed. Such a loose standard [as the one proposed yesterday] would make Taiwan a joke in the world," she said.
Adding to the debate was a clause introduced by Wang Jung-chang stating that "to reduce emissions to 1990 levels would be the country's long-term goal."
KMT Legislator Wu Ing-yi (
Separately, lawmakers reached consensus on an article demanding that a proposal on greenhouse gases produced by electricity and manufacturing departments come into effect within two years -- at the latest -- after the bill is promulgated.
A proposal on emissions reduction for transportation and agricultural departments has to be implemented within four years.
A proposal for commercial, residential and other departments, meanwhile, has to be carried out within six years after the bill comes into force.
The Research Center for Environmental Change at Academia Sinica said that from 1990 to 2005, Taiwan ranked first in the world, among countries with a population of 10 million or more, in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions.
"As a committee in charge of the emissions reduction bill, we have to set a reduction target to meet public expectations," DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (
Lawmakers, however, failed to agree on a mechanism by which the government would allocate carbon dioxide emission quotas among industrial sectors.
The bill left the committee yesterday and lawmakers will deliberate upon the proposed articles at a future date.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS