Taiwan’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 23 to 25 percent by 2030 needs to be “raised and be more ambitious,” Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said yesterday, but added that he acknowledges the challenge of achieving the goal as it stands.
The government is drafting a “clearer, more pragmatic, achievable pathway” to reach the net zero goal and aiming for a more ambitious emissions reduction target, Peng said in a radio interview.
He did not elaborate on the details, but said that the government must take the lead and enterprises, many of which would soon be charged for their emissions, need to implement “new ways of thinking.”
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung,Taipei Times
The government in 2022 announced a 2050 net zero pathway. The mid-term 2030 goal was to cut carbon emissions by 23 to 25 percent compared with the 2005 baseline year.
However, Peng said the 2005 level had only been reduced by 1.8 percent in 2022 and reaching the 2030 goal would “in reality be hard.”
The reality needs to be challenged, “because only when the pressure and the drive to change comes from the top are people motivated to do the work,” Peng said.
Asked why the government had turned away from nuclear power, which does not produce carbon emissions, the minister said: “Energy is never a true-or-false question, but a multiple-choice one,” citing President William Lai’s (賴清德) response.
The president said he is open to new types of energy that are free of nuclear waste and safety concerns, Peng said, adding that “these new technologies, however, take years.”
Furthermore, nuclear plants have to stop operating, per the law. Restarting them would require complicated measures and would take many years, he said.
The best way to reach the target is to follow the UN’s COP28 resolution. That means increasing the generation capacity of renewable energy and boosting energy efficiency, the minister said.
COP28 made a joint commitment last year to “triple the world’s installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 GW by 2030” and “to collectively double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from about 2 percent to more than 4 percent every year until 2030.”
Other than net zero, Peng added that climate adjustment is also important.
“Decarbonization is to save the earth, but adjustment is to save ourselves,” he said.
“The global temperature would increase [at least] 1°C by 2050 despite decarbonization efforts,” the minister said. “So, adjustment or long-term preparation for climate change needs to be done.”
People can no longer expect no floods at all, “rather we should boost our resilience, and be prepared to the extent that we’re not afraid of floods,” Peng said. “Or work on how to cool our cities, for example by providing outdoor shade.”
“The president has said that decarbonization and adjustment to climate change will have to comprise a certain percentage, perhaps a quarter, of the government budget,” Peng added.
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