Greenhouse gas emissions from the industry sector are expected to increase over the next few years, but the nation would still strive to achieve its goal of cutting overall emissions by 2 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said this week.
The industry sector’s emissions would grow from 142.276 million tonnes in 2005 to 146.544 million tonnes by 2020, but it is working to “decouple” GDP growth from emissions by reducing “carbon intensity,” the ratio of carbon emissions to GDP, to 43 percent within the time frame, EPA Department of Environmental Management Deputy Director Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said yesterday.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act (溫室氣體減量及管理法), promulgated in 2015, says that by 2050, net greenhouse gas emissions are to be half 2005 levels.
To achieve this goal, the EPA has laid out three milestones: 2 percent by 2020, 10 percent by 2025 and 20 percent by 2030, a plan the Executive Yuan approved in March.
On Thursday, the EPA announced a more detailed plan for six sectors — energy, industry, transportation, construction, agriculture and environment — to achieve the 2020 objective, with the plan approved by the Executive Yuan on Oct. 3.
The plan requires emissions of the other five sectors to decline, with the energy sector cutting 1.73 percent from 2005 levels by 2020; transportation, 2 percent; construction, 2.5 percent; agriculture, 25 percent; and environment, 60 percent, the EPA said.
The energy sector would reduce the discharge coefficient between electricity and carbon dioxide from 0.554kg of emissions per kilowatt-hour (kWh) last year to 0.492kg per kWh by 2020 and 0.394kg per kWh by 2025, in line with the government’s policy to achieve a “nuclear-free homeland by 2025,” Huang said.
Other plans for the 2020 target include increasing use of public transportation by 7 percent, reducing electricity use at public-sector buildings by 5 percent and boosting wastewater treatment, the EPA said.
“Curtailing greenhouse gas emissions is a long-term project that needs patience and public collaboration,” Huang said.
This is different from air pollution, which can be improved by installing pollution control facilities, he said.
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