Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) yesterday said that he is against lowering electricity prices and subsidizing fossil fuels, calling on the incoming government to establish a reasonable energy pricing mechanism that reflects the health and environmental consequences of using fossil fuels.
“The government spends NT$20 billion [US$618.27 million] on fossil-fuel subsidies every year, but if the effects of global warming and air pollution are taken into consideration, the cost of subsidizing fossil fuels would be NT$1 trillion every year, or NT$43,000 per person,” Lee said at a conference in Taipei about sustainable environments.
While the government said it is “taking care of” Taiwanese by lowering gasoline and power prices, the industry and energy sectors, which together use 45 percent of the nation’s energy and contribute to more than 60 percent of Taiwan’s carbon emissions, are the largest beneficiaries of the fossil-fuel subsidies funded by taxpayers, Lee said, adding that it is a misuse of public money.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“I have issues with president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) view that electricity prices would not go up in the short term. I have suggested that she should re-examine energy pricing and tax systems, but she said that her team are researching the issue. That is avoiding responsibility. An administration must propose comprehensive policies and plans to make itself useful to people,” said Lee, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986.
While the ratio of tax revenue to GDP is about 30 percent in the US and European nations, tax revenue accounts for only 13 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, which means the government has no money for education and environmental protection, he said, adding that there should be a reasonable tax system on fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
While Taiwan does not need to follow in the footsteps of developed nations like the US, which is unwilling to lower the living standards of it citizens while fighting global warming, transitioning to sources of renewable energy and developing carbon capture and storage technologies are key to dealing with global warming and air pollution, Lee said.
Combating global warming is a pressing issue, as extreme weather and large-scale disasters would ensue when global temperatures rise to 2?C above pre-industrial levels, which would be the case in 25 years if carbon dioxide levels keep rising at their current pace, he said.
The conference, with the theme of “eco-friendly Taiwan, sustainable environment,” was organized by environmental groups.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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