Nearly 90 percent of Taiwanese teenagers do not know the nation relies on foreign energy imports, a poll released yesterday showed.
The survey’s publication came a day after Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) called for increasing the price of electricity to encourage people to use less power this summer.
The King Car Culture and Education Foundation poll found that 87.1 percent of elementary and high-school students are unaware that a “large share” of the country’s energy is imported from abroad, the foundation told a virtual news conference.
Photo courtesy of the King Car Cultural and Educational Foundation
The poll showed that 62.4 percent of teenagers said they feel their habits do not facilitate energy conservation or reduce their carbon footprint.
Sixty-five percent of teenagers said they learned about energy conservation and carbon emissions from school, 51.8 percent from textbooks and 50.9 percent from television news programs, the survey showed.
Asked what they do to help conserve electricity and natural resources, 76 percent said they turn off lights that are not in use, 52.7 percent said they turned off water taps not in use and 50.7 percent said they walk instead of riding an electric or gasoline-powered vehicle.
In addition, 51.5 percent of respondents said they reduce food waste, 33 percent recycle and 31.5 percent reuse shopping bags, the survey showed.
Although 32 percent of teenagers said they use reusable utensils when eating outside of the home, only 20 percent use reusable straws, the foundation said, adding that younger children are more likely to have reusable utensils than older ones.
The survey showed that the nation needs to educate young people on how to practice a sustainable lifestyle, which the foundation is promoting through its “war against carbon emissions” campaign, it said.
Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳), principal of Ankeng Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), said the campaign at her school involved telling students to replace older light bulbs with energy-saving LED lights and turning off appliances.
The school is planning to install rooftop solar panels to increase its use of renewable energy sources, she added.
The questionnaire-based poll was conducted last month in elementary, junior high, high and vocational high schools across the nation, with 22,668 respondents, a 3 percentage point margin of error and a 97 percent confidence level, the foundation said.
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