The Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) yesterday released its annual sustainability report, while criticizing Taipei, New Taipei City and seven other regions for refusing to provide data.
According to the report, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County were rated excellent this year.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Keelung and Chiayi City, as well as the counties of Hsinchu, Yilan and Taitung, did not provide the union with data related to their sustainability policies and received the worst rating of “inferior.”
Photo: CNA
The public has long expected transparency of government information and allowing the public to participate in governance, and the local governments refusing to share data demonstrates the arrogance of those in power and a regression of citizen involvement, TEPU president Yeh Kuo-liang (葉國樑) said.
Chiayi County had the best energy conservation and carbon reduction performance last year, with total power usage dropping by 7.9 percent compared with 2022, TEPU founder Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said.
Kinmen and Changhua counties saw significant growth in renewable energy facilities and a substantial increase in renewable energy generation, Shih said.
The report also showed that regions did not support establishing new nuclear power plants or nuclear waste storage sites, nor did they support extending the service of current nuclear power plants, the report said.
No region opposed the shutdown of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Longmen Nuclear Power Plant, in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
The power plant was first proposed in 1980 and was nearing completion in 2011 when the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident revived concerns about nuclear power safety.
This ultimately led to the freezing of the facility in 2014, with the last of the fuel rods delivered to the US on March 28, 2021.
Only a few regions released data on greenhouse gas emissions, Shih said, adding that Changhua only periodically recorded such emissions, while Miaoli, Nantou and Penghu counties had no information available.
This demonstrates the low priority of such issues for these local governments.
TEPU academic committee member Lin Jen-pin (林仁斌) urged Hsinchu and Hualien counties to promote water conservation policies, as the report showed that the average daily water consumption of those counties’ residents, at 318 and 295 liters respectively, were higher than other regions.
Lin also urged regions to work on wastewater pipe networks, saying that less than 30 percent of most counties and cities were connected to water purification plants.
The group urged the Hualien County Government to investigate what caused the county’s forest coverage to drop from 80 percent last year to 38 percent this year, whether natural disaster or human caused.
Pingtung County had the best performance in removing invasive species, clearing 3,600 hectares of 34,000 foreign animals, the report showed.
Tainan removed 8,014 invasive green iguanas last year, it said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
RSS