A government program to develop solar energy has harmed farmers and threatens Taiwan’s food security, a group of academics said yesterday.
Taiwan’s land use laws have been steadily deregulated to facilitate photovoltaic construction since 2015, but there has been a steady trend away from the principle of sustainable development, the academics said in a petition, which had garnered 80 signatures.
The government must establish clear standards and procedures to select sites for solar installations to minimize the impact on farmers’ and fishers’ livelihoods, the environment and food security, the petition said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
Regulations give officials “virtual carte blanche” to declare farmland to be unsuited for agriculture, National Chung Kung University (NCKU) professor of urban planning Huang Wei-ju (黃偉茹) said.
The land is rezoned for use as solar farms with almost no factual basis, Huang said.
For example, 500 hectares designated as agriculture-only in Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城) was rezoned to permit photovoltaic construction, despite 89 percent of the land being intensively cultivated, she said.
Taiwan needs 132,000 to 570,000 hectares for green energy installations to achieve its 2025 target of 40 to 80 gigawatts generated from renewable sources, NCKU professor of urban planning Chao Tsu-yuan (趙子元) said.
That would require a comprehensive rethinking of national land use plans, a process that the government has not gone through yet, Chao said.
Failure to address controversies arising from the selection of solar energy sites would complicate implementation of zoning plans over the next two years, National Chengchi University (NCCU) assistant professor of land economy Tai Hsiu-hsiung (戴秀雄) said.
Green energy zones should be established under the Electricity Act (電業法) and Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例), not extemporized by executive order, Tai said.
The effects of renewable energy installations should be more extensively examined in environmental impact assessments, he said.
It would be a mistake for Taiwan to fixate on net zero carbon emissions at the expense of other considerations, or reduce the challenge of mitigating climate change to merely installing renewable energy installations, National Taipei University professor of urban planning Liao Kuei-hsien (廖桂賢) said.
Rushing to build solar and wind farms without adequate planning would lead to a host of long-term problems, including loss of biodiversity and food production, Liao said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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