On the afternoon of July 15, 2014 President Ma Ying-jeou attended the Green+ Together Taiwan Sustainability Summit 2014, where he outlined Taiwan's energy policies and its achievements in promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction. The president encouraged all sectors to work together in these efforts to forge a path toward sustainable development in Taiwan.
President Ma also applauded and expressed his appreciation to Global Views Monthly magazine, Siemens Limited Taiwan, the German Institute in Taipei, and the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy for working together to hold this important conference for a second consecutive year in pursuit of sustainable development.
In discussing Taiwan's experience in the development of solar power, President Ma remarked that in 2009, the year after he took office, he promulgated the Renewable Energy Development Act. He said the government also in that year began providing reasonable investment returns to companies installing solar power equipment, such as purchasing excess power at a fixed feed-in tariffs, as well as guaranteeing purchases over a period of 20 years, to encourage industry to invest in these facilities. The president noted that Taiwan's total installed solar photovoltaic capacity reached 392 megawatts (MW) last year, up more than 40-fold from the 9.5 MW of installed capacity in 2009, and the solar power industry generated a total output value of NT$157.2 billion, up 47% from 2009.
President Ma mentioned that increasingly serious global warming is prompting nations throughout the world to reduce use of traditional fossil fuels and instead develop low-carbon energy sources. Germany, the president said, is the global leader in this transition. He explained that in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011, Germany set a goal to entirely abolish nuclear power by 2022. But Germany's power grid is connected to those of nine neighboring nations, so it has the luxury of being able to gradually develop renewable energies, the president said. Taiwan, on the other hand, is an island with an isolated power grid. President Ma furthermore stated that Germany's energy transition effort has led to a large increase in electric rates and higher generating costs. Electric rates for households in Germany are four times those in Taiwan, while power costs for industrial users are 2.3 times those in Taiwan, he said.
President Ma also mentioned that last year nuclear power accounted for 18.8% of Taiwan's energy mix. He noted that aging fossil fuel power electricity plants are being retired and that if Taiwan's First, Second, and Third Nuclear Power Plants are also retired in the coming years, Taiwan's electricity supply will become problematic. Therefore, said the president, Taiwan society needs to carefully consider this issue as it looks for substitutes to nuclear power, otherwise an unstable power supply could ultimately lead to power rationing and power shortages.
President Ma stated that the United Nations has defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In particular, he said, Taiwan has a scarcity of natural resources but is subject to frequent natural disasters. With this in mind, the government back in 1997 created the National Council for Sustainable Development, following which the Strategic Guidelines for ROC's Sustainable Development were released in 2000, he noted, adding that two years later the Taiwan Sustainable Development Action Plan was formulated. In October 2012, he remarked, the government released the Guideline on Energy Development. The common goal of all of these initiatives, he said, is to realize sustainable development.
President Ma furthermore stated that Taiwan's population is less than 0.3% of the world's total population, but it is responsible for nearly 1% of the world's total carbon emissions, and ranks 18th worldwide for per capita carbon emissions. The president mentioned that the ROC lost its seat at the United Nations in 1971, which made it impossible for the nation to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and also prevented it from becoming party to the Kyoto Protocol. Nonetheless, he said, the ROC, based on its obligations as a member of the world community, has pledged that its carbon emissions in 2020 will be reduced to 2005 levels, while the level of carbon emissions in 2025 will drop back to those seen in 2000. President Ma acknowledged that these goals will not be easy to achieve, but said that the ROC is making every effort to attain them.
As for achievements by Taiwan in promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction, the president stated, upon taking office in 2008 he actively implemented policies to promote green energy (one of the six major emerging industries that Taiwan has targeted for development), as well as intelligent electric vehicles and smart green buildings. At the same time, the government is also actively promoting an initiative to reduce consumption of water, electricity, petroleum, and paper at government agencies and schools, he said. Meanwhile, he pointed out, in 2011 Taiwan switched to LED lamps in all of its traffic signals, becoming the second nation in the world to do so, and now also intends to use LED street lamps. Over the past six years, the president commented, Taiwan's energy-use efficiency has risen annually by an average of 2.45%, and from 2008 to 2011 Taiwan's average annual increase of 2.3% in energy-use efficiency exceeded the rate of improvement in the United States, France, Japan, and Korea. What's more, he said, Taiwan's carbon emissions dropped from 0.95% of the world's total in 2007 to 0.84% as of 2011. This shows that the efforts of the public are yielding substantive results, he remarked.
In the area of green energy, President Ma stated, last year Taiwan became the world's second largest maker of solar cells, while the output value of backlight modules here was second in the world, and the value of LED components made here ranked third globally. Over the five-year period from 2009 to 2013, he said, Taiwan's green energy industry has accounted for domestic investment of over NT$270 billion, while the green energy sector last year generated output valued at over NT$420 billion, which was 2.65 times the level of 2008. The president also noted that the number of people employed in the green energy sector has risen quickly from 16,000 in 2008 to 68,250 last year, a growth of over four-fold.
In discussing the development of renewable energy here, President Ma said that the government is guided by the principles of "no power rationing, reasonable power prices, and reduced carbon emissions," as well as the principles of "ensuring nuclear safety, gradually reducing reliance on nuclear power, and creating a green power and low-carbon environment to become a nuclear-free country step by step." Steps taken so far include the installation of rooftop solar energy panels and the construction of 1,000 land- and sea-based wind turbines.
Lastly, the president stated that Switzerland's World Competitiveness Yearbook 2013 ranked Taiwan's enterprises third globally in the category of "level of focus on sustainable development." This, he said, shows that the efforts by Taiwan's companies to promote sustainable development have been recognized by the international community. President Ma mentioned that the aforementioned challenges faced by Germany are precisely what Taiwan will encounter and must carefully ponder in the course of its energy transition. He remarked that the government plans on convening a National Energy Conference in August to discuss supply and management of electric power with the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant mothballed. President Ma said that he is confident that this conference, which will explore Germany's experiences in energy transition and sustainable development, will serve as important reference for Taiwan in its pursuit of an appropriate energy mix, and will help Taiwan along the road towards greater sustainability.