Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) promised yesterday to rigorously monitor and curb the carbon emissions of five production complexes run by state-owned enterprises.
Chen said she would also ask the enterprises “to reciprocate by helping subsidize public transportation.”
“Through these efforts, I hope to bring down carbon emission levels in 2010 to those of 2005,” Chen said.
The mayor was responding to a request by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Li-na (陳麗娜) who highlighted the city’s high carbon emission levels and asked the mayor to impose energy taxes to contain emissions and use the revenues to “subsidize public transportation.”
Chen Li-na said that carbon emissions in Kaohsiung were among the highest in the world, averaging 34.7 tonnes per person per year, or nine times the global average of 3.8 tonnes per person.
The KMT lawmaker attributed the high volume of carbon emissions to the high ratio of private cars and motorcycles in the city and the production facilities of the five state-owned enterprises in Kaohsiung.
The five facilities — China Steel Corp; Taiwan Power Co’s Talin plant and thermal power plant; and CPC Corp, Taiwan’s Kaohsiung refinery and Talin plant — account for about 70 percent of the city’s total CO2 emissions, Chen Li-na said, describing them as the “culprits” of the city’s greenhouse effect.
Chen Li-na also asked the city government to turn off its lights for one hour every week, turn on street lights 30 minutes later and turn them off 30 minutes earlier every day, and set every Friday as public transportation day.
The mayor promised to consider Chen Li-na’s suggestions and map out a set of energy-saving measures.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
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