Taiwan’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions were not reflected in the 2016 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) because the index assessed actions taken last year, which was before Taiwan put in place relevant legislation and goals, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said on Wednesday.
Among the 58 countries listed in the CCPI, Taiwan was ranked “very poor” at 52nd, behind China (47th), Thailand (49th) and Malaysia (39th), despite climbing two spots from last year, according to the CCPI 2016, which was jointly published by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe on Tuesday.
The rankings were based on carbon emissions and related policies in the 58 countries last year, the EPA’s Office of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Management said.
Photo: CNA
However, Taiwan did not pass its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act (溫室氣體減量法) or set its carbon reduction goals for its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) until this year, the EPA office said.
The Climate Change Performance Index “is an extremely big challenge for export-oriented countries that do not have enough energy resources of their own,” the office said, adding that other Asian economies in a similar situation to Taiwan were ranked lower, including Japan (58th), South Korea (57th) and Singapore (55th).
EPA Chief Secretary Hsieh Yen-ju (謝燕儒) said climate policies in Europe mainly focus on ways of improving energy efficiency, promoting the development of renewable energy resources and making better use of the carbon emission trade mechanism.
For Taiwan, an export-reliant country whose industrial sector consumes more than 50 percent of its energy needs, it is very difficult to adhere to those policies, he said.
Nonetheless, Taiwan managed to reduce its carbon emissions from 1 percent of the global volume in 2008 to 0.77 percent in 2013, which reflected progress in terms of energy efficiency, Hsieh said.
In a report in September on Taiwan’s INDC, the EPA set a goal of reducing carbon emissions in the nation to 80 percent of the 2005 level by 2030, and to 50 percent by 2050.
The top ranked countries in the 2016 CCPI were Denmark (4th), the UK (5th) and Sweden (6th).
There were no listings above 4th as no country was deemed to be making enough progress to prevent dangerous climate change, a press release by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network said.
The two largest carbon emitters, the US (34th) and China (47th), climbed in the rankings, thanks to their massive investments in renewable energy and their efforts to shift energy production away from coal.
Australia, Japan, South Korea and Canada, all industrialized countries, were listed among the bottom six in the index.
“We see global trends, indicating promising shifts in some of the most relevant sectors for climate protection and important steps towards a transformation of the energy system,” said Germanwatch’s Jan Burck, author of the CCPI.
“For decarbonizing the energy system on a global scale, it will be important that the world’s emerging economies manage to decarbonize their energy sector before their economies are as dependent on coal as the ones in developed countries,” he said.
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