Taiwan ranked 29th out of 132 nations in this year’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a report by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network, the Environmental Protection Administration said.
Taiwan had ranked 24th among 133 nations in the 2006 EPI and 40th out of 149 nations in the 2008 EPI, the agency said, and this year’s ranking of No. 29 surpassed the performance of nations such as Canada (37), South Korea (43), Australia (48), the US (49), Singapore (52) and China (116).
According to the report, Switzerland ranked No. 1 in overall performance, followed by Latvia and Norway, while Costa Rica (5) is the only non-European country to make the top 10 performers.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan gained high scores and ranked No. 1 in three categories: air quality-effects on human health, water-effects on human health and forests.
According to the report, the forest category included three indicators — forest growing stock (the standing volume of the trees in a forest), forest cover change and forest loss. Taiwan obtained high scores in all three assessments.
However, the nation ranked relatively low in categories such as agriculture (103) and climate change (110).
The agency said the low scores were because of low agriculture subsidies, high carbon dioxide emissions and a low percentage of electricity generated by renewable energy, which measures renewable electricity production as a percentage of total electricity production.
High carbon dioxide emissions were caused by the dense population throughout the nation and growth in the business and industrial sectors, the agency said, adding that efforts by the government and the public to slow down global warming and fight climate change had contributed to a 4.1 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in 2008 and a 4.3 percent reduction in 2009.
Although Taiwan ranked 68th in sulfur dioxide emissions, the average amount emitted per person each year has decreased from 13.71kg in 2005 to 10.72kg in 2005, the agency said.
The agency said it would strengthen controls on industrial and vehicle emissions, as well as promote low-pollution cars to reduce sulfur dioxide emission.
In addition, the agency said although the government has already limited or banned the use of persistent organic pollutants listed by the Stockholm Convention, Taiwan is still unable to sign the convention because to the nation’s current international political position.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS