Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers.
The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather.
The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation.
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The groups said that the Regulations for the Management of Setting up Renewable Energy Power Generation Equipment of Power Users above a Certain Contract Capacity (一定契約容量以上之電力用戶應設置再生能源發電設備管理辦法), promulgated by the ministry in 2021, were ineffective in incentivizing corporations to reduce emissions.
Greenpeace said it would continue to challenge the court ruling on legal and factual grounds, adding that all voices must be heard and respected equally when it comes to climate justice.
The judge said that people or civic groups only have the right of initiation in legislation, but have no right to demand that administrative agencies amend laws, Greenpeace East Asia Climate and Energy Director Hsin I (忻儀) said.
The court also found that Taiwan experiences typhoons, floods and natural disasters due to its geographical location and it is difficult to determine whether extreme weather events are related to climate change, she said.
It is already internationally recognized and scientifically proven that Taiwan’s extreme weather phenomena are related to climate change, she said.
Research by World Weather Attribution found that climate change increased wind speeds by about 7 percent and rainfall by 14 percent during Typhoon Gaemi last year, Greenpeace said.
Moreover, residential and commuter areas are already under tangible threat from extreme flooding due to climate change, it said.
It referenced a 2023 report by National Taiwan University’s Center for Weather, Climate and Disaster Research and flooding in New Taipei City’s Fujhou, Banqiao and Sanchong railway stations.
The government must address the long-term consequences of climate change on natural disasters and the environment, and protect the public’s rights in cases of natural disasters, Hsin said.
The public has the right to demand that the government and corporations uphold their carbon reduction commitments, she added.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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