President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday authorized new national targets for reducing carbon emissions in response to the global failure to limit climate warming to 1.5°C and a surge in extreme weather events.
Speaking at the third meeting of the National Climate Change Committee in Taipei, he said that the revised goal is to achieve a 32 percent reduction in emissions by 2032 and a 38 percent reduction by 2035 to a margin of 2 percentage points against emission levels in 2005.
The changes followed last month’s announcement by the Ministry of Environment that the nation’s 2030 goal is to reduce emissions by 26 to 30 percent, up from the previous goal of reducing emissions by 23 to 25 percent.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Citing the World Meteorological Organization, Lai said that last year was the warmest year on record and that global temperatures have increased by 1.5°C on average compared to preindustrial levels, referring to the red line drawn by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Extreme climate events, including devastating fires in Los Angeles, underscore the urgency of responding to climate change, he said.
Under Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun’s (鄭麗君) leadership, the Cabinet has conducted a series of discussions between high-ranking officials and scientists toward strengthening decarbonization efforts and discharging the nation’s duty to global governance, Lai said.
The conclusion reached by the discussions was that Taiwan must supplement its bottom-up approach to decarbonization with top-down planning to ensure targets are sufficiently rigorous, he said.
Lai acknowledged that the updated plan, dubbed National Determined Contribution 3.0 beta, would be overly ambitious to some and not ambitious enough to others, but added that officials have been pragmatic in setting the goals.
Achieving carbon emissions targets would require coordinated effort from the government, enterprises, educational institutions and civil society, he said.
The Executive Yuan has been directed to incorporate innovative technology, financial support, carbon pricing, regulatory changes, green leadership and community-led initiatives in planning the “flagship program,” Lai said.
In addition, awareness of the necessity to respond to climate change must be embedded in society through educational initiatives controlled at the national level, he said.
The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Education have been ordered to launch a joint effort in climate education targeting young Taiwanese under the stipulations of the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法), Lai said.
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