Environmental groups yesterday expressed hope for rapid improvement in Taiwan’s environmental record during a belated Earth Day meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
During the meeting, the groups urged the president to speed up the drawing of a timeline for carbon reduction while increasing energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy.
However, after the meeting the groups said they were disappointed with Ma’s lack of promises and determination to resolve the climate problem.
Ma had originally agreed to meet the groups last Wednesday on Earth Day, but the meeting was delayed because of a presidential schedule conflict, Green Party Taiwan (GPT) secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
“We prepared three treasures as presents for President Ma last week — a ‘North Pole shaved ice,’ a ‘Formosan flower’ and a ‘Blue Ocean fish.’ But after seven days the ice has melted, the flower wilted and the fish is already rotten,” Pan said.
“We urge the president to speed up the battle against environmental problems so that Taiwan’s environment doesn’t also rot as a result of government delays. These issues cannot wait,” he said.
At a press conference held after the meeting, the groups voiced their disappointment.
“Ma did not directly respond to our suggestion to convert 4 percent of the nation’s energy supplies into renewable sources by 2012, and 18 percent by 2020,” Society of Wilderness (SOW) president Eddy Lin (林耀國) said.
In addition, Environmental Protection Minister Steven Shen (沈世宏), who joined the groups in the meeting, said that “flexibility is needed” in drawing a timeline for greenhouse gas emission reduction, Lin said.
“This means that there will be no specific reductions set,” Lin said.
Taiwan Natural Trail Society secretary-general Chang Yu-chuan (張尤娟) said that during his election campaign, Ma had proposed lowering the nation’s emissions levels to last year’s levels between 2016 to 2020, and to 2000 levels by 2025.
However, “the recent National Energy Conference failed to establish a clear timeline for carbon reduction because of opposition from industrial representatives; Ma has clearly broken his campaign promise,” Lin said.
The groups also felt that the Ma administration had a predetermined agenda regarding the development of nuclear power, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance director Kang Shi-hao (康世昊) said.
“The recent National Energy Conference was essentially a reinvention meeting for the development of nuclear energy, in spite of all the opposing voices,” Kang said.
“In sum, the nation’s environmental policy is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible,” Pan said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS