The nation’s top environmental protection official yesterday called for the development of dependable and sustainable alternative energy sources, as well as the passage of a law to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to help combat global warming.
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) was at the legislature yesterday to relaunch the administration’s bid to have the draft GHG emissions law approved.
“If the draft is approved, Taiwan would be the first developing country to voluntarily establish a greenhouse gas emission reduction law,” Dang said.
Last month, the US’ National Snow and Ice Data Center captured satellite images of the Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf breaking up, Dang said, adding that if the speed of global warming did not slow down, living conditions, especially in island states, would be severely affected.
Calling on the legislature to support the draft regulations, Dang said: “Although the government is in a transitional stage, global warming is an urgent matter that cannot wait.”
Dang said legislative support was needed “to reach reduction targets such as [former] Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh’s (李遠哲) ‘Year 2000 emission standards by 2025’ plan.”
Dang’s initiative received a positive response from legislators from both camps, who reiterated the importance of finding cleaner energy sources to sustain the needs of the nation.
Urging the EPA to develop clean energy technologies, such as tidal energy, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said that although the nation was not bound by the Kyoto Protocol, “in 1995 Taiwan’s annual carbon emission per capita, at 11.41 tonnes, ranked 16th in the world.”
Given such levels, Kuan said the nation “could face detrimental international sanctions [in the future].”
Kuan said that in a country where economic concerns had always taken precedence over the environment, green-minded efforts were hard to carry out, but the economic prosperity had come with a price.
“If all the development cases proposed by the government are constructed, Taiwan’s emissions per capita would skyrocket to 16 tonnes per year, pushing us into the top 10 for emissions,” she said.
Chinese National Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) agreed, saying that the nation’s current environmental efforts, such as tree planting, were small compared with its carbon emissions.
“People should take more responsibility for the pollution they produce,” she said, while urging the EPA to help facilitate the law’s passage.
In addition to clean energy, KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chi (林鴻池) suggested that Dang promote vegetarianism as a way to combat global warming.
“The production of every kilogram of beef produces 36.4 kilograms in carbon emissions, while growing the same volume of fruit and vegetables only produces 3 percent of that amount,” Lin said.
Lin said that for each person that abstained from eating meat, 7kg of carbon emissions could be saved per day.
In response, Dang said that while more study was needed, he concurred that “occasional vegetarianism should help somewhat with global warming.”
The minister said he would go vegetarian on the upcoming Earth Day on April 22 and encouraged the public to do the same.
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