Taiwan will help fight global warming: Chu

Addressing an international seminar attended by experts from home and abroad, including Germany and the United States, who discussed innovative strategies for renewable energy development and carbon reduction, Chu said energy conservation and carbon reduction are the most important human missions in the 21st century.

With per capita carbon dioxide emissions reaching three times the world average, Chu said, Taiwan must step up its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to fulfill its obligations as a member of the global village.

To realize this policy goal, Chu said, the government has been promoting the passage of four laws on better energy management, development of renewable energy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the imposition of an energy tax.

“To date, two of them — the statutes on energy management and renewable energy development — have cleared the Legislative Yuan and we are now pushing for enactment of the more sensitive legislation on an energy tax and a statute on carbon reduction,” Chu explained.

Noting that the government has set a target of bringing the country's carbon emissions in 2020 down to the level of 2005, Chu said strenuous efforts have to be made to attain that goal.

“Even if we manage to achieve our goal, we might still fail to reach the carbon reduction target set forth in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord,” Chu said, adding that he will push for the government to work even harder in collaboration with the private sector to contribute to the carbon reduction goals.

Speaking on the same occasion, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen said Taiwan is determined to learn from Germany about how to draft renewable energy development strategies.

Germany originally set a target of having renewable energy account for 12 percent of its overall energy resources by 2010. In fact, the country managed to achieve 15 percent in 2008, far ahead of its original schedule, Shen said.

“We admire Germany's achievements in this regard and we hope to learn from its successful strategy,” Shen added.

According to Shen, the core of Germany's experience lies in the fact that the German government has not raised debts to expand public investment in renewable energy development but has instead enhanced the wholesale prices of renewable energy to stimulate private investment in the sector.

By so doing, more than 200,000 jobs have been created, which has helped reduce Germany's unemployment rate while simultaneously boosting green energy development.

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