The Cabinet will launch a “low-carbon community” project to promote its goal of reducing greenhouse emissions, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday.
The project involves the selection of an outlying island, which will be developed into a model of low-carbon living, with at least 50 percent of electricity on the island coming from renewable sources, Liu said.
The format will gradually be expanded to other communities, Liu said.
The premier said that through the government’s efforts to promote green energy, electricity consumption had dropped by 4.5 billion kilowatt hours over the past year, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of Tainan City and Tainan County combined.
Liu made the remarks while on a trip to Tainan to visit several businesses involved in green energy, including E-Ton Power Tech, the manufacturer of Taiwan’s first lithium-ion battery electric vehicle, and Delta Electronics, whose Tainan plant has been honored by the Architecture and Building Research Institute for its ecofriendly features.
Delta Group chairman Bruce Cheng (鄭崇華) said the plant, which has a natural ventilation system and uses natural sunlight as its primary lighting source, consumes 40 percent less electricity than a traditional building.
In addition, water consumption at the plant is 50 percent less than others of similar size because it is equipped with a large underground reservoir that can collect up to 4,110 tonnes of rain water, sufficient for three months supply, Cheng said.
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
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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
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