Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) yesterday said that he has accepted President William Lai’s (賴清德) invitation to serve as a consultant on his National Climate Change Strategy Committee, adding that he agreed with proposals to continue using nuclear energy.
The committee was one of three established one month after Lai took office on May 20, along with the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee and the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee.
Pegatron Group (和碩集團) chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), who supports the use of nuclear energy, has been retained by the president to serve as the deputy convener of the climate change committee.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Many have perceived the appointment as a significant shift from the “nuclear-free homeland” policy, which the president’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been espousing for decades.
Lee, 87, told political commentator Huang Kuang-chin (黃光芹) on her online talk show that he accepted Lai’s invitation because he had participated in many net zero emissions meetings around the world and felt obligated to inform the public about the importance of tackling challenges wrought by global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.
That more than 1,000 people died during the pilgrimage to Mecca this year shows that rising global temperatures could gradually turn the Earth into a place that is unfit for human habitation, the Nobel laureate in chemistry said, adding that humans would not survive natural disasters should global temperatures rise by 3°C.
“If we are not actively reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, we could become extinct like the dinosaurs,” Lee said, adding that this is the view of a responsible scientist, rather than exaggerated statements from an alarmist.
The nation’s goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050 cannot be met if the government fails to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030, he said.
“Nuclear energy still has its disadvantages given the current level of technology, but the potential disasters that it could bring cannot compare with the complete destruction of the human race,” Lee said.
“What Tung said is what he truly believes in, and he expressed his support for nuclear energy as an entrepreneur and from a scientific perspective. The position has made him a target of criticism, but he is heading in the right direction,” he added.
Lai also knows that the reform is necessary for society to change, but he is under a lot of pressure to make the first step, Lee said.
Given the size and density of Taiwan’s population, the nation cannot sustain itself by simply using renewable energy to replace the use of fossil fuels without using nuclear energy, or extending the use of existing nuclear power plants, Lee said.
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