The Chinese National Federation of Industries in its white paper this year called on the government to launch a carbon pricing mechanism, which showed that urging more climate action is no longer just an environmental campaign.
The federation, chaired by Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong (王文淵), was previously critical of pollution control regulations and was therefore in conflict with local environmentalists.
However, in the white paper released on Thursday, the federation joined environmentalists in calling on the government to pay more attention to the risks of extreme weather events, to implement a carbon pricing scheme and to draft a roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, expecting that Europe and the US would introduce carbon border taxes.
The white paper also highlighted Taiwan’s most severe water shortage in 56 years, starting last year and extending to this spring, and urged the government to look to Singapore for how to improve water resource management.
Extreme weather patterns are not merely the future; they are already reality. Over the past year, people in Taiwan have experienced two extreme weather scenarios, with either too little rain or heavy rain causing flooding.
After the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a landmark scientific report released on Monday warned of increasingly extreme heat waves, droughts and flooding, Taiwanese scientists presented no less worrying findings.
Their simulations projected that Taiwan’s winter would shrink from 70 to 50 days, or even disappear, by the end of this century, that the number of days with no rain and spells of intense rain would increase, and that there would be fewer but more intense typhoons.
It was only three months ago that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) hired trucks to transport water to its production facilities amid supply restrictions. This month, torrential rain caused flooding in central and southern Taiwan, with heavy damage to roads reported from Kaohsiung, Taichung and Changhua County.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Thursday said that the government’s hydroengineering projects under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program have reduced the impact of flooding in the south. However, he seemed to care more about building flood protection structures while lacking a plan to improve overall water resource management.
In Taiwan, it is often a long way to go before science can sway policymaking, while politicians tend to forget the lessons taught by nature after escaping yet another climate crisis by chance.
Whether it is carbon emissions reduction, energy transformation or water resources management, the Cabinet’s actions often lack risk consciousness and integrated planning. When addressing extreme weather crises, it often attempts to solve one problem at a time while missing the big picture.
“We need another Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on climate action,” Taiwan Climate Alliance secretary-general Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) told an online news conference on Wednesday, referring to the minister of health and welfare.
The leader of the alliance, which comprises tech giants such as TSMC and Asustek, implied that just as Taiwan needs Chen’s leadership of the Central Epidemic Command Center in fighting COVID-19, it also needs a climate action commander.
On Earth Day on April 22, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) joined many countries in endorsing the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
What is the next step? Tsai’s administration might want to show the world Taiwan’s determination before the start of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31.
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