President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of March 20 with former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer. In addition to welcoming Mr. de Boer on his visit to Taiwan to participate in the 2012 Acer Corporate Social Responsibility Forum, the president also introduced the government's efforts to promote energy conservation, reduce carbon emissions, and develop alternative energy sources.
The president explained that the ROC is a nation lacking in energy sources that relies on imported energy to meet over 99% of its needs. Consequently, Taiwan deeply understands the importance of conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions. The president said that it was with this in mind that four years ago when running for the presidency he unveiled a carbon reduction timetable and standards for Taiwan. These have now become national policy. Under the framework, Taiwan has set the objective of reducing its carbon emissions to 2005 levels by the year 2020, with a further reduction to 2000 levels by the year 2025. Preliminary success has already been seen in this initiative. While carbon emissions in 2010 and 2011 rose slightly by 6.2% and 2.4% from the previous years, respectively, energy intensity fell by 4.1% and 1.4%. This indicates that Taiwan's carbon emissions, which had once been rising continually, are now moderating. Since Taiwan has pegged energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction as national policy objectives, ten projects are presently being carried out in a proactive effort to fulfill the nation’s pledges to the international community.
President Ma furthermore stated that when he took office in May 2008 he instituted the "four conservations" (i.e. conservations of electricity, fuel, water, and paper) at the Presidential Office Building, and the use of various resources included under the initiative has fallen by between 10% and 20% on average annually. This movement has been expanded throughout government agencies all around Taiwan, and he is confident that the joint efforts of the government, the corporate sector, and the public will enable Taiwan to chalk up considerable successes in this regard.
Turning the topic to alternative energies, the president stated that the government's medium-term goal is to construct 1,000 wind turbines both onshore and offshore, and to install solar panels on homes with generating capacity equal to the consumption of one million households. He also explained that the government has converted all of Taiwan's traffic signals to LED lamps and that in the coming several years streetlamps throughout Taiwan will also be gradually converted to LED lamps. This will not only cut back on energy usage and carbon emissions, but will also make it possible to use brighter lamps. President Ma said that Taiwan has followed in the footsteps of Singapore in promoting the conversion of its traffic signals to LED lights, and in the future when the nation has successfully converted all streetlamps to LED lighting, Taiwan will be able to join the ranks of advanced nations in the area of energy conservation and carbon reduction.
President Ma also recognized the efforts made by Taiwan's corporate sector in working with the government to promote energy conservation, which has helped companies fulfill their social responsibility. The president remarked that the ROC is one of the nations most deeply impacted by climate change, having been subject to frequent typhoons, flooding, and earthquakes. Even though the ROC lost its representation in the United Nations in 1971 and is unable to participate in the conferences and activities of the UNFCCC, Taiwan has still taken the initiative to formulate national carbon reduction standards, and this constitutes concrete action to combat global climate change.
The president stated that Mr. de Boer during his tenure as UNFCCC executive secretary worked to hold many conferences and promoted negotiation and dialogue among countries throughout the world. He can accurately be described as one of the movers and shakers behind global climate policy. Mr. de Boer presently serves as Special Global Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainability for the accountancy firm KPMG, and the president saluted him for his continued efforts to promote energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction work throughout the world. The president expressed his hopes that Mr. de Boer will provide his suggestions and support to Taiwan during his visit.
Mr. de Boer was accompanied to the Presidential Office by ACER Chairman and CEO J. T. Wang (王振堂) and Taiwan Business Council for Sustainable Development Secretary General Dr. Niven Huang (黃正忠) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shu-hung Shen (沈世宏), National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu (劉志攻), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷), and Council for Economic Planning and Development Deputy Minister Hu Chung-ying (胡仲英).