The nation has dropped two places in the Germanwatch Climate Change Performance Index this year, because of increased electricity use and a decline in renewable power generation last year, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday, adding that the final results would not be confirmed until tomorrow.
Germanwatch announces the rankings every year, and its index for next year would be announced tomorrow, according to the environmental organization’s Web site.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that Germanwatch lowered the nation’s ranking from No. 54 to No. 56, only surpassing South Korea, Iran, the US and Saudi Arabia.
The report cited documentation obtained at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place in Poland.
The nation’s renewable power generation declined by 2.87 percent last year, because less rainfall resulted in a 17 percent reduction in hydropower generation, the EPA said yesterday, adding that solar and wind power sources were not able to make up the shortfall despite their significant increase last year.
Due to higher temperatures in summer last year, the nation’s electricity demand increased by 2.34 percent compared with 2016, it said, adding that last year’s power use also hit a record.
The group evaluates a nation’s performance in four areas — greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy development, energy use and climate policy — but climate policy “lacks objective evaluation criteria,” which is why the nation received a lower score, the EPA said.
India is a big carbon emitter, but its climate policy score is curiously high, it added.
Evaluations on greenhouse per capita gas emissions are unfavorable for export-reliant countries, such as Taiwan and South Korea, the agency said.
The EPA said it would pay close attention to the group’s publication tomorrow and continue reviewing its climate-related policy.
In last year’s report Taiwan ranked No. 54 overall and No. 40 on climate policy.
Taiwan was referred to as “Chinese Taipei” in the group’s past reports.
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