by Martin Banks
Speaking in Brussels (26 February), Dr Chi-Ming Peng also cautioned that “huge challenges” lie ahead in the fight against global warming. He also conceded his country and the rest of the world have to more to “educate” the public about the threat of combat global warming. The minister, on a short visit to Brussels, has spent much of his working life witnessing the growing impact of climate change: before he entered politics two years ago he had worked as a meteorologist in Taiwan. To those who still doubt the existence of climate change, he said, “I am an expert on weather and forecasting the weather nowadays is easy and the reason for that is climate change.”
He outlined some of the efforts his country was making to deal with the issue but admitted it faced difficulty cutting emissions. At present, renewable energy accounts for 15 per cent of Taiwan’s energy mix when it should have reached 20 percent had it met agreed targets. The 20 percent target is expected to now be met by the end of this year and grow to 30 percent by 2030. But the minister accepted his country still lagged behind the EU in terms of “ambitious” climate mitigation targets. One other illustration of this is that just 2 percent of Taiwan’s GDP is based on green technologies. He said the EU was “the most sustainable region in the world” in tackling global warming and his country wanted to work with the 27 strong bloc on future efforts to address the issue and Taiwan “shares the same goals and ambitions” as the EU in wanting to cut carbon emissions and his message was, “We are your friend on this.”
Turning to the energy mix in Taiwan, he said gas accounts for some 50 per cent at present and coal 36 per cent. The country’s last nuclear power station closed in May last year and nuclear has been phased out in recent years. However, there is a debate underway in his country for a possible resumption of nuclear power, with some 40 percent of the population saying they are in favour of this. The minister, when asked by reporters about this, said several considerations had to be explored before any possible restarting of the nuclear industry in Taiwan might start. These include testing public opinion and satisfying safety concerns about nuclear power. But, there were also concerns about other forms of energy, including renewables. As an example he pointed to the fact that year a major typhoon in the south of the country had seriously damaged 120,000 solar panels. This, he said, posed questions about not just recycling of such things but also their safety.
Even though Taiwan’s targets fall well below those of the EU meeting its carbon reduction targets - a reduction of 40 per cent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels - will “not be easy” he said but added, “we will do our best and, in the meantime, we are also exploring other possible solutions such as hydrogen.” The minister, who is also due to visit Amsterdam to look at how the Dutch are trying to deal with food waste, said, “The EU has been more ambitious (on but there are also differences in environmental conditions to consider. It was also worth noting that Taiwan is a small country with strictly limited natural resources. The focus, he said, had to be on both mitigation and carbon reduction but also “resilience”, for example, improving the health prospects of the elderly in the event of weather extremes such as heatwaves.
“We have to say that such weather extremes are already underway,” he said. An illustration of this were the 800mm of rain that fell on one part of Taiwan on one day last September. A drought is now being predicted this year due to lower-than-normal rainfall this winter and spring, he said. “This sort of thing is causing a lot of uncertainty,” he admitted. “But the EU sets a wonderful example in tackling this and I am here today to say that we in Taiwan share exactly the same values.”
By: N. Peter Kramer
