The Taichung City Government on Friday said it would enshrine its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in a local ordinance.
It said that the ordinance would be introduced in the spirit of the COP26 climate summit, where world leaders in November last year agreed on a goal of cutting global emissions by 30 percent by 2030, with some countries setting later dates for themselves.
Although Taiwan did not participate in the UN summit, Taichung would require zero emissions from “energy production, industry, residential buildings, public transportation, agriculture and environmental sources” by 2050.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
The city would promote efficient energy use, the use of electric vehicles for public transportation, the development of sustainable energy sources and other policies to help achieve this goal, it said, adding that 136 countries and 234 cities worldwide were similarly working toward zero emissions goals.
Taichung first promoted the reduction of emissions in 2014 when it was developing a program to educate residents and local businesses about emissions reduction, Taichung Secretary-General Huang Chung-tien (黃崇典) said.
Taichung is seeking to improve links between different means of public transportation, including the new Green Line of its metropolitan railway system and rental bicycles, the city government said.
“Since then the city started making every effort to increase the use of green appliances in homes and public spaces, the use of renewable energy has grown fourfold,” Huang said. “We have also started operations on the MRT Green Line and have added 950 iBike bicycle sharing stations.”
Taichung has so far added 197 electric buses to its public transportation system, he said.
The electric scooter use rate in the city has also grown 224.6 percent since 2014, he said, adding that the city boasts 1,379 charging stations for electric vehicles.
The city government-built Shuinan Gateway Park (水湳經貿園區) serves as a demonstration center for zero emissions solutions, he said.
The park uses zero emissions facilities, smart equipment to reduce electricity consumption and houses a water recycling center that processes domestic sewage and produces potable water, he said.
Huang said that the city is also assessing options for the retirement of the coal-fired Taichung Power Plant in Longjing District (龍井), which is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world at a capacity of 5,500 megawatts.
The city is also focused on the transformation of its waste treatment facilities, the conservation of blue carbon sinks and afforestation as part of its zero carbon emissions goals, he said.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching