On the afternoon of November 5, President Ma Ying-jeou attended the International Forum on Green Productivity 2013 and the inauguration of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Center of Excellence on Green Productivity. The president called for collaboration from all sectors to build Taiwan into a low-carbon society where green energy plays an important role.
In remarks, President Ma stated that the ROC established the China Productivity Center (CPC) in 1955, and in 1961 became a charter member of the APO, so these organizations have a lengthy history. The APO, he noted, has long strived with great success to enhance industrial, agricultural, and service sector productivity in its member nations. The president commented that global warming and climate change have led to decreased output of foodstuffs and caused ecological catastrophes, he said, so the APO in recent years has placed even greater emphasis on boosting green productivity, which is fully in line with the low-carbon and green energy policies being promoted by the ROC.
In discussing Taiwan's low-carbon and green energy policies, the president stated that besides actively promoting the development of the six major emerging industries – green energy, biotechnology, tourism, medicine and health care, high-end agriculture, and cultural and creative industries – the government is also emphasizing the development of the so-called four emerging "smart" industries, namely cloud computing, intelligent electric vehicles, smart green buildings, and the industrial application of invention patents. The objective is to develop eco-friendly industry here, he said.
Last year, the president mentioned, Taiwan reduced its CO2 emissions by 6.1 million tons, equivalent to the planting of 61,000 trees. In addition, the Executive Yuan's Environmental Protection Administration in recent years has also actively promoted the Low-Carbon and Sustainable Homeland Program. Under this initiative, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Yilan County are expected to become low-carbon cities by 2014, and Penghu County and Kinmen County will become low-carbon islands, he said. In the longer term, he stated, it is hoped that four major low-carbon living spheres will be established in northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan by 2020, which highlights Taiwan's determination to use all its resources to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions, the president said.
President Ma further pointed to the example of an initiative carried out while he was mayor of Taipei City to reduce the volume of garbage. He said that the objective of "zero landfilling, full recycling" to be achieved between 2000 and 2010 was accomplished ahead of schedule. The volume of trash in Taipei City has been reduced by over 70%, while the level of recycling has risen substantially to over 65%, he pointed out. Nationwide, last year the volume of trash came to 3.38 million tons, down by 62% from a peak of 8.88 million tons in 1998, the president said, while the percentage of recycling rose to 65% in 2012, up from 42% in 2007. In addition, he noted, the Taiwan pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai featured garbage reduction and increased recycling as two main themes. This shows that Taiwan's successes and experiences are worth sharing with other nations, the president stated.
As for how energy conservation and carbon reduction are related to the rationalization of energy prices, President Ma said, unless gasoline and electricity are reasonably priced, it will be difficult to achieve goals for energy conservation and carbon reduction. Furthermore, he expressed skepticism about the appropriateness of the government using taxpayer money to subsidize big users of fuel and electricity. The president cited an example, saying that when the government adjusted electricity rates in October, it sought to reduce the impact on household users in this round of price hikes. He pointed out that only 14% of households and 20% of small stores are seeing rate hikes. At the same time, the government is also quite concerned about the reaction of the industrial community, which uses more power. Fortunately, he said, Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) Chairman Sheng-Hsiung Hsu (許勝雄) clearly stated that the members of his organization could accept the hikes. President Ma stated that he was pleased that the CNFI came forth at this critical moment to support the rationalization of electricity rates, enabling the government to smoothly implement the policy.
President Ma also mentioned that government efforts over the past five years to reduce power usage have saved 20 terawatt hours of electricity. Even though this is already more than the generation capacity of a nuclear power plant, it only constitutes one-fifth of total energy consumption, he stated, so considerable room still exists for more improvement by big industrial users.
President Ma emphasized that to boost green productivity, energy consumption must be reduced without impacting original output targets. Even though achieving such a goal can be painful, the nation must bear down to overcome hurdles, he said, adding that he is confident that the goal of realizing a low-carbon and green energy-based society can be realized.
Among those attending the activities were Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shu-hung Shen (沈世宏), Council of Agriculture Minister Bao-ji Chen (陳保基), Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Yea-Ping Shih (史亞平), Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang (梁國新), APO Secretary-General Mari Amano, and Managing Director & Chief Consultant of CPC Wang Kuo-ming (王國明).