Meteorologist Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明), who is to be the new minister of environment, on Friday said that he would accelerate the nation’s transition to net zero and roll out a clear carbon pricing road map to help implement president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) green growth strategy.
Peng was one of the five new Cabinet members premier-designate Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had announced at a news conference on Friday.
Peng said his expertise lies not only in weather forecasting, as he has also dedicated his professional time to climate change and net zero actions, adding that he has also attended the UN’s Climate Change Conference 11 times.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
He said that Lai was behind his effort to push for the establishment of the Taiwan Climate Partnership, the aim of which is to advocate for and practice net zero actions among enterprises in response to the demands of international clients and to raise climate change awareness.
The partnership was founded in 2021 by eight leading tech companies in Taiwan — AUO Corp, Delta Electronics Inc, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Microsoft Corp Taiwan, Lite-On Technology Corp, Acer Inc, Asustek Computer Inc and Pegatron Corp.
Regarding carbon fees, the rate of which is still under discussion, Peng said that he is aware of the dispute between industry and social groups, and vowed to continue the ministry’s job in facilitating communication.
It is important for Taiwan to “have a carbon fee road map to let all parties know that decarbonization is a necessary transition and should not be considered a burden,” he added.
Meanwhile, when asked about the proportion of female appointees in the new Cabinet, Cho said Taiwan has numerous outstanding, talented women and that “efforts will continue to be made” to recruit more to the Cabinet.
As of Friday’s announcement, four out of 20 Cabinet heads that have been revealed are women.
This falls short of a promise made by Lai, who said during his presidential campaign last year that he would aim for at least one-third of his Cabinet to be female.
Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源), who is designated to be the minster of health and welfare, did not directly address questions regarding how he plans to maintain the financial sustainability of the National Health Insurance system.
The government would take “various approaches” to allocate funding to the system, Chiu said.
Chiu also said that he had just returned from South Korea, where he attended a meeting of the World Medical Association (WMA), during which a delegation from China again protested the WMA’s support for Taiwan’s participation in the WHO.
The main reason the WMA supports Taiwan is because it has performed so well in terms of providing universal health coverage through the National Health Insurance system, he said.
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