Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Monday highlighted Taipei’s environmental governance policies, especially those on waste disposal and traffic, at a summit in Paris of world mayors focused on climate change.
The only mayor representing an Asian city at the “Summit of Mayors: From Paris to Belem: 10 Years of Global Action for Climate” held in Paris, Chiang first talked about Taiwan’s “keep trash off the ground” program.
The approach keeps streets clean and litter-free by limiting public trash bins, with garbage trucks making scheduled rounds, allowing residents to bring out their trash at designated times for collection, he said.
Photo: CNA
Taipei also collects a fee per garbage bag, requiring residents to use designated bags that they must buy, while no such rules apply for recycled waste, he said.
Because residents can save money by generating less trash, the policy has reduced household garbage by 65 percent, while the proportion of recycled waste to total waste has risen from 2 percent to 66 percent, he said.
Regarding traffic, Chiang touted the Taipei MRT’s daily ridership of 2 million people, calling it one of the most reliable metro systems in the world.
He also highlighted an incentive program he introduced as mayor for the city’s YouBike rental system that offers the first 30 minutes of each ride for free, leading one in four residents to switch from driving or riding motorcycles to using the city’s bicycles instead.
Chiang also outlined plans to transform the city’s Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) into a net zero demonstration zone, featuring low-carbon buildings, a wind corridor layout and sustainable infrastructure.
With Nvidia Corp planning to set up its Taiwan headquarters in the area, the initiative aims to showcase the potential for “green growth.”
The mayor’s summit marks the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate.
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