The new government has been in power for just over two weeks and while it has not had enough time to produce any major accomplishments, it has succeeded in trivializing the hugely important issues of global warming and how the nation should tackle its disproportionately high carbon emissions.
If the government is to be believed, Taiwan and mankind can reverse the dramatic climatic changes afoot across the globe and prevent the melting of the polar ice caps simply by taking off one’s suit jacket, abstaining from eating meat and swapping one’s car for a model with a slightly smaller engine.
No wonder President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was heckled last week when he attended an environmental conference, with one activist telling him: “Environmental protection is not just about taking off your suit.”
So far the government has concentrated on cherry picking, focusing on individual actions that can reduce personal carbon footprints. But this will not achieve anything in the long term unless tough, concerted action is taken to tackle the industrial, power-generation and transport sectors at the same time.
One initiative the government seems keen on is the mass planting of trees here and abroad to offset carbon emissions from the industrial sector. But if our new leaders had been paying attention to environmental news, they would have known that the global ecology department at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California, rubbished such activity as “a waste of time” back in 2006.
The government has also talked about nuclear power as a way to meet the nation’s power generation needs, but any new projects would take decades to come on line and would be extremely unpopular. The Atomic Energy Council’s indecision over what to do with all the barrels of waste generated thus far makes this option even more unappealing.
Ma’s problem is a result of his campaign platform. On the one hand he talked about cutting carbon emissions and meeting Kyoto Protocol requirements, but on the other he promised massive infrastructure investment and plans to increase economic output.
The two seem like strange bedfellows, but contrary to popular belief they are not mutually exclusive.
However, to achieve results the government will need to invest vast amounts of money in clean energy and force very tough and unpopular environmental standards on the industrial sector.
Another strategy would be to transform the Environmental Protection Administration’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee from the role of a rubber stamp that only makes cosmetic changes to applications into something with the power to force future projects — like Formosa Plastics’ petrochemical factory — to include mitigating measures, such as carbon scrubbers on chimney stacks and solar or wind generation to make them energy self-sufficient.
Current indications, including the apparent reluctance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-dominated legislature to pass the long-stalled carbon emission reduction law, suggest that none of this is going to happen anytime soon.
Yesterday’s announcement on clean energy is a start of sorts, but to cut carbon emissions the Ma administration will also have to pressure the legislature into passing comprehensive environmental regulations. It cannot afford to bet on the goodwill of the industrial sector, otherwise Ma may well end up losing his shirt, not just his jacket.
It is a good time to be in the air-conditioning business. As my colleagues at Bloomberg News write, an additional 1 billion cooling units are expected to be installed by the end of the decade. It is one of the main ways in which humans are adapting to more frequent and intense heatwaves. With a potentially strong El Nino on the horizon — a climate pattern that increases global temperatures — and greenhouse gas emissions still higher than ever, the world is facing another record-breaking summer, and another one, and another and so on. For many, owning an air conditioner has become a
Election seasons expose societal divisions and contrasting visions about the future of Taiwan. They also offer opportunities for leaders to forge unity around practical ideas for strengthening Taiwan’s resilience. Beijing has in the past sought to exacerbate divisions within Taiwan. For Beijing, a divided Taiwan is less likely to pursue permanent separation. It also is more manipulatable than a united Taiwan. A divided polity has lower trust in government institutions and diminished capacity to solve societal challenges. As my co-authors Richard Bush, Bonnie Glaser, and I recently wrote in our book US-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis?, “Beijing wants
Taiwanese students spend thousands of hours studying English. Yet after three to five class-hours of English as a foreign language every week for more than nine years, most students can barely utter a sentence of English. The government’s “Bilingual Nation 2030” policy would do little to change this. As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies would soon be able to translate in real time, why should students squander so much of their youth and potential on learning a foreign language? AI might save students time, but it should not replace language learning. Instead, the technology could amplify learning, and it might also enhance
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has nominated New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) as its candidate for next year’s presidential election. The selection process was replete with controversy, mainly because the KMT has never stipulated a set of protocols for its presidential nominations. Yet, viewed from a historical perspective, the KMT has improved to some extent. There are two fundamental differences between the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP): First, the DPP believes that the Republic of China on Taiwan is a sovereign country with independent autonomy, meaning that Taiwan and China are two different entities. The KMT, on the
RSS