A coalition of environmentalist groups yesterday published a national energy conservation assessment, ranking New Taipei City, Pingtung County and Taipei as the highest performing areas.
The assessment evaluated energy conservation policies and performance last year in terms of policy design; energy legislation and development; public participation; output of government resources; and levels of government involvement.
The top three performing areas were New Taipei City, Pingtung, and Taipei, which the coalition said had “clear policy direction and proposed locally appropriate action plans.”
Photo: Chen Wei-han, Taipei Times
They were followed by Yilan County, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Taichung and Taoyuan, which had “satisfying” policies, but had yet to make progress in understanding local energy conservation potential.
Cities and counties in the third-best performing group included Hsinchu, Hsinchu County, Yunlin, Chiayi and Taitung, which were said to “lack innovation and assistance in proposing and executing energy transition plans.”
In the bottom group were Keelung, as well as Miaoli, Changhua, Chiayi and Hualien counties, which were inactive in energy management and needed improvement in understanding energy transition.
New Taipei City had the most comprehensive policy design and long-term planning, while citizens and experts alike were invited to chair panels concerning energy-saving issues, which was a good example of participatory democracy, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said.
Pingtung has created a well-rounded resume in “green” energy development, as well as proposing county-appropriate energy plans, and the overall government involvement in energy issues was high, with the county commissioner himself taking up the business, Hung said.
Other highlights of energy policies included a Tainan bylaw, which required users that consume more than 800 kilowatts of electricity per year to install a solar system that could generate 10 percent of their electricity needs, Citizen of the Earth Foundation Taipei office director Antonio Chou (周東漢) said.
“Tainan has shown that local governments could overcome administrative hurdles and compensate for the lack of central government intervention via local regulations,” Chou said.
Yilan County, unlike the six special municipalities, has limited resources to maneuver, but has managed to utilize spare resources with inter-departmental coordination, showing the county government’s management ability, Chou said.
The coalition criticized a national energy conservation plan proposed by the Executive Yuan last year that asked all cities and counties to achieve a 2 percent conservation goal, saying the Executive Yuan’s plan was meaningless because it did not consider differences between areas.
The coalition said there is a widespread shortage of energy professionals, while a localized understanding of energy consumption is also lacking.
It called on the central government to establish permanent funding and a legal system to speed up energy conservation and energy transition.
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