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.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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