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.
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