Fifty-three hospitals, hotels and department stores with a total of 166 locations signed an energy-saving agreement yesterday to reduce their contribution to carbon dioxide emissions, pledging to cut electricity consumption by 5 percent within three years.
Bureau of Energy statistics indicated that the joint effort would help save 130 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and put NT$1.04 billion into the market for products that conserve energy.
In addition, the efforts should cut carbon dioxide emissions by 83,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to building 224 Da-an Forest parks, the bureau’s report showed.
“Although South Korea has implemented coercive measures to enforce energy conservation, our government believes that saving energy is a universal value and will gain public support. As a result, we have decided to begin with voluntary energy conservation measures,” Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said at a press conference yesterday.
Yiin said that the ministry hoped to reduce the growth of carbon dioxide emissions, putting emissions in 2020 at this year’s level and cutting emissions to their level in 2000 by 2025.
Electricity consumption in the service sector has gone up by 3.9 percent annually on average over the past five years, the statistics showed.
Electricity consumption in relation to floor space at hospitals, hotels and department stores is between 1.2 times and 2.1 times higher than that of normal office buildings, the report said.
Sean Chuang (莊秀石), chairman of the Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association (中華民國觀光旅館商業同業公會), said yesterday that energy conservation was almost impossible for the hospitality industry — especially for five-star hotels — as many measures would be considered disrespectful to hotel guests. However, hotels can start with replacing automatic doors with revolving doors, using energy-saving lights bulbs and planting trees.
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