President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that his administration would keep working to reduce the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions to help protect the environment.
Ma said Taiwan was ranked the world’s 13th-largest producer of carbon dioxide by the international science journal Nature, up from 22nd place in 2006, indicating the urgency with which Taiwan needed to take action.
Ma was speaking at a conference on sustainable development of public infrastructure held by the Public Construction Commission.
He said Taiwan should not avoid the problem just because the nation was not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol.
Taiwan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the level they ware at in the year 2000 by 2020, and to half the 2000 level by 2050, he said.
“These are very ambitious goals that will be very difficult to achieve. This requires a lot of perseverance and the participation of all sectors and the public,” Ma said.
He said that since his inauguration in May, he has been promoting various measures aimed at conserving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, such as turning down air conditioners and wearing lightweight clothes to the office.
While his critics have said that all these steps are far less effective than closing down a single power plant, Ma said the measures would raise public awareness of environmental protection and energy conservation.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS