Academia Sinica yesterday released a white paper urging authorities to adopt more drastic plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions and draft climate change legislation.
The drafting of the white paper, “Taiwan Deep Decarbonization Policy,” started in 2015 and took more than three years to finish, as it involves many fields, including energy-related techniques, economic development and social communication, said Wang Pao-kuan (王寶貫), director of Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Environmental Changes and lead author of the report.
Taiwan’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 reached 284.643 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, up from 137.854 million tonnes in 1990, the paper says.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
In 2015, carbon dioxide made up about 95.21 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, followed by methane (1.91 percent), nitrous oxide (1.58 percent) and hydrofluorocarbons (1.3 percent), it says.
In the Germanwatch Climate Change Performance Index 2019, Taiwan placed 56th, dropping two places from last year’s report and ranking among the world’s worst performers.
With its reliance on export trade, Taiwan might face “border carbon adjustments” imposed by foreign countries if it does not take more drastic action to curb emissions, Academia Sinica said.
It said that 89.82 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 were discharged by the energy sector, 7.79 percent by the industrial sector, 0.95 percent by the agricultural sector and 1.44 percent by the waste sector.
The government must carefully assess the pros and cons of various power sources, including nuclear energy, when planning energy reforms while paying attention to potential socioeconomic problems, it says.
It should work harder to promote energy preservation, boost energy efficiency and consider hiking electricity prices or levying a carbon tax, the paper says.
The nation needs a climate change act to integrate climate action across sectors, but before such an act is legislated, it should implement the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act (溫室氣體減量及管理法) promulgated in 2015, even though its goals are not ambitious enough, it says.
If global warming has become an accepted fact, then people need to know more about its driving mechanism, the speed of warming related to rising ocean temperatures and partial pressure of carbon dioxide in oceans, National Taiwan University’s Institute of Oceanography director Jan Sen (詹森) said separately.
Regional scientists should carry out long-term observations in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Kuroshio east of Taiwan and the western North Pacific to establish a seawater temperature database, Jan said, expressing the hope that the Ministry of Science and Technology or the Ocean Affairs Council would support such projects.
The Environmental Protection Administration is to hold public hearings to collect opinions on how to achieve by 2025 its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from 2005 levels, Department of Environmental Management Deputy Director Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said, adding that it looks forward to having more collaboration with academics.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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