Dozens of environmental groups staged a protest in front of the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) before the two-day National Energy Conference (NEC) commenced yesterday, urging the government to consider developing renewable energy instead of relying on coal or nuclear power plants.
The groups also demanded the government carry out conclusions reached at the conference, instead of letting them sit until the next meeting.
“We call on the government to focus on discussing responsible energy and policies to tackle climate change,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) deputy secretary-general Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said.
Lee said that although yesterday marked the third time the nation has held an energy conference at the national level, “the officials like to hold meetings, but little is done afterwards.”
“We do not want to see ‘low carbon’ become a mere slogan again,” Homemaker Union and Foundation (HUF) chairwoman Yen Mei-chuan (顏美娟) said.
The nation’s energy policies should include developing sustainable and clean alternative energies, such as solar, wind and tidal power, former HUF chairwoman Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said.
“Taiwan generates only 1 percent of its energy from resources originating from the island [like solar]. In other words, 99 percent of our energy is imported [generated from oil and coal],” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang To-far (王塗發) agreed, saying that besides potential safety problems, “Taiwan is entirely capable in the technical sense of developing alternative energies like solar power, but the government's emphasis on nuclear power development will suppress these developments.”
Green Consumers' Foundation chairman Jay Fang (方儉) also joined the rally, holding an oversized poster of a cartoon featuring a nuclear plant as a giant monster crushing a wind turbine into pieces, while holding the hand and leading a blindfolded President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
A group of residents living near the construction site of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Taipei County chanted slogans such as “Nuke Four (核四) is unsafe, do not let this piece of junk operate” and “Nuke Four, give me back my illegally expropriated land.”
Besides developing cleaner energies, power conservation and green policies are also key to solving global warming, Green Party Taiwan (GPT) secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
“Taipower last year introduced a market mechanism where domestic users who reduce their electricity usage get a discount on their bills; the company said that together the savings in power last year amounted to the equivalent of planting 1 million trees,” Pan said.
“We all know that these ‘million trees’ did not come from building a new power plant, but has to do with conservation,” he said.
Pan said that on Earth Day last year, Ma promised to impose carbon taxes and lower income taxes.
“Let's remind him of this ... It would be a real waste for the government not to introduce a similar market mechanism after this conference,” he said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their