The timing for the release of the movie An Inconvenient Truth in Taiwan last month could not have been better -- in September the Executive Yuan approved a draft bill designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was just about to sign a declaration with seven countries from Central America to commit to emissions cuts.
The compelling evidence on climate change presented by former US vice president Al Gore also came as a solid endorsement for the three Taiwan Green Party candidates running for the Taipei City Council, who are campaigning on the greenhouse gas issue.
Despite some progress, environmental activists suggest that more needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions.
Wu Tung-jye (
Wu noted that the Cabinet needs to consider the issue from a much broader perspective, including whether it is necessary for the nation to construct another freeway or to build another steel or petrochemical plant.
The idea of a specific timeline, however, was rejected by the EPA officials.
"Only laymen would come up with a proposal like that," said Young Chea-yuan (楊之遠), director-general of the EPA's air quality protection and noise control department, adding that the timeline for the Kyoto Protocol was arrived at through multiple rounds of negotiations and compromises among the signatories.
Young said the protocol was signed by 38 industrialized countries around the world. And realizing that strict observance of the protocol would not be easy, industrialized countries have agreed on several viable solutions to help them meet the emission targets.
Young said countries can actually increase their quota of greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Development Mechanism, where more developed countries help less developed ones curb the amount of greenhouse gas they produce.
"Taiwan can by no means be categorized as an industrialized country, and it is neither a member of the United Nations nor a signatory of the protocol," Young said. "We are unable to do this kind of trading with any country in the international community."
Young said the law is "a very serious thing," and it might involve an overhaul of the nation's energy policy.
Young also said that unlike the nation's air pollution laws, where the EPA is granted complete executive authority, the administration needs to coordinate with other departments in Cabinet, such as Ministry of Economic Affairs, to reduce carbon emissions. It also needs to convey the government's policy objectives to private industry, he said.
The lack of consensus on what the law could achieve is not the only hurdle.
Minister of the Environmental Protection Agency Chang Kow-lung (張國龍) said in a press conference held at the beginning of this month that the nation should dedicate at least 1 percent of GNP to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the budget that was assigned to the EPA only accounts for about 0.5 percent of GNP.
This sum is supposed to cover all the environmental conservation work required, he said.
Industries, on the other hand, have ambivalent feelings about the policy to reduce carbon emissions, given that Taiwan is not a signatory of the protocol.
British Trade and Cultural Office Director Michael Reilly said that climate change is simply an issue that industry cannot ignore any more.
"Because climate change will affect all of us. And it will affect our children even more. None of us can solve it on our own," Reilly said.
According to Reilly, the British government has taken practical steps to tackle the issue of greenhouse emissions.
The most significant measure was the introduction of the climate change levy, which was first announced in 1999 but formally introduced in 2001.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and