A government program to develop solar energy has harmed farmers and threatens Taiwan’s food security, a group of academics said yesterday.
Taiwan’s land use laws have been steadily deregulated to facilitate photovoltaic construction since 2015, but there has been a steady trend away from the principle of sustainable development, the academics said in a petition, which had garnered 80 signatures.
The government must establish clear standards and procedures to select sites for solar installations to minimize the impact on farmers’ and fishers’ livelihoods, the environment and food security, the petition said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
Regulations give officials “virtual carte blanche” to declare farmland to be unsuited for agriculture, National Chung Kung University (NCKU) professor of urban planning Huang Wei-ju (黃偉茹) said.
The land is rezoned for use as solar farms with almost no factual basis, Huang said.
For example, 500 hectares designated as agriculture-only in Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城) was rezoned to permit photovoltaic construction, despite 89 percent of the land being intensively cultivated, she said.
Taiwan needs 132,000 to 570,000 hectares for green energy installations to achieve its 2025 target of 40 to 80 gigawatts generated from renewable sources, NCKU professor of urban planning Chao Tsu-yuan (趙子元) said.
That would require a comprehensive rethinking of national land use plans, a process that the government has not gone through yet, Chao said.
Failure to address controversies arising from the selection of solar energy sites would complicate implementation of zoning plans over the next two years, National Chengchi University (NCCU) assistant professor of land economy Tai Hsiu-hsiung (戴秀雄) said.
Green energy zones should be established under the Electricity Act (電業法) and Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例), not extemporized by executive order, Tai said.
The effects of renewable energy installations should be more extensively examined in environmental impact assessments, he said.
It would be a mistake for Taiwan to fixate on net zero carbon emissions at the expense of other considerations, or reduce the challenge of mitigating climate change to merely installing renewable energy installations, National Taipei University professor of urban planning Liao Kuei-hsien (廖桂賢) said.
Rushing to build solar and wind farms without adequate planning would lead to a host of long-term problems, including loss of biodiversity and food production, Liao said.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
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