Taiwan Church News 3380 Edition December 5 - 11, 2016 Church Ministry Taiwan Urged To Step Up On Carbon Reduction And Energy RenewalReported by Chiu Kuo-rong Calling Tsai Ing-wen administration to take action immediately on carbon reduction, a press conference, entitled as"Carbon reduction in Taiwan - a point from COP 22", was held by Mom Loves Taiwan(MLT) at Taipei on November 29. As the global actions to limit the increasing temperature to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial level before the end of this century seems not optimistic, Taiwan government is urged to step up on this most compelling ecological crisis. Otherwise, the international development of Taiwan would become more difficult, MLT claimed. According to 2016 Climate Change Performance Index(CCPI), issued every year by UN Framework of ClimateChange Conference(UNFCCC), Taiwan's performance ranked as the 52nd, a very poor one among the countries surveyed. Especially, on the check-list item of the comparison of CO2 emission and her promised target, Taiwan's performance ranked very close to the poorest! Regarding Taiwan's poor performance on CCPI, MLT pointed out straight forward that the problem is due to ashortage of pragmatic methodologies to do carbon reduction, even though lots of related environmental laws had already been existed for years. Take the example of Mass Rapid Transit(MRT), only around 40% population in the northern Taiwan would utilize it; over 80% population at the other parts of Taiwan, even 90% at Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, still drive car or ride motorcycle emitting CO2 on the roads, MLT lamented. Although CO2 emission has been drastically decreased in the past years due to a stagnant economics in Taiwan, itis very strange that several fossil fuel power station are still under construction, MLT criticizes, adding that Tsai Ing-wen administration should showcase her clear pathway on carbon reduction and energy renewal in order to catch up the mainstream energy policy of international community! Translated by Peter Wolf |