Two government agencies have jointly published a climate change report to provide industry with a scientific basis for reducing carbon emissions.
The National Science and Technology Council and the National Environment Research Academy yesterday said that their 2024 National Scientific Report on Climate Change would offer key reference material for carbon reduction and ensuring sustainable operations.
The council in 2011 and 2017 published the Taiwan Scientific Report on Climate Change in response to climate targets set by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and renamed it this year, Central Weather Administration Administrator Cheng Chia-ping (程家平) said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
“Through this joint report we hope to provide better climate data, and to use this data in our assessment of climate issues, and promotion of policies related to climate change,” he said.
“Government ministries are invited to revise our policy suggestions, so that they can be better promoted and applied from a national perspective,” he said.
Referring to Article 3 of the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法), Deputy Minister of Environment Shih Wen-chen (施文真) said the report aims to help local governments integrate national policies on adapting to climate change, allowing central and local authorities to “jointly combat the impact of climate change.”
Hsu Huang-hsiung (許晃雄), a researcher at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Environmental Changes, and Lee Ming-hsu (李明旭), a professor at National Central University’s Graduate Institute of Hydrological and Oceanic Studies, both worked on the report.
Hsu and Lee said that compiling the report involved one-and-a-half years of research.
“One key takeaway is that we need to pay equal attention to climate risk mitigation and adaptation,” Hsu said. “The report reflects the scientific community’s expectations for Taiwan’s climate adjustment efforts.”
In addition to reducing carbon emissions, efforts should also involve the adaptation of water, agriculture and fisheries resources, land planning that takes ecosystems into account, and efforts to mitigate the health impact of inadequate rainfall, heat waves and rising sea levels, he said.
The report said that if action is not taken to mitigate rising temperatures, Taiwan’s summers could last up to seven months, affecting rice production and fisheries.
Rising sea levels would also threaten Yunlin County, Tainan and Keelung, it said.
An increase in seawater temperature of just 1°C would cause a 15 percent reduction in catches of fish in waters around northern Taiwan, the report said, adding that rice production could drop 13 percent by 2050.
The altitude at which natural forests would grow would rise by 173m, which would reduce the total area of Taiwan’s forests and have a major impact on wildlife habitats, the report said.
Taiwan is already recording an increase in the number of consecutive days without rainfall during spring, and the gap between wet and dry periods is increasing, it said.
“The intensity and frequency of drought events will increase, and when rain occurs, extremely heavy rain will become the new normal,” it said.
The number of typhoons reaching Taiwan would drop, but the wind speed of those that occur would be greater and they would bring more rainfall, the report said.
Warming would also result in increased ozone production and worse air quality, it said.
“The urban heat island effect would become significantly intense,” the report said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS