President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of December 3, 2015 with a delegation led by Dr. Vaughan Turekian, Science and Technology Adviser to the US Secretary of State. In addition to welcoming the delegation to Taiwan, the president also briefed them on substantive results of the government's effort to promote energy conservation and reduce carbon emissions, as well as the energy challenges it will be facing in the future.
In remarks, President Ma mentioned that Dr. Turekian had just on December 2 attended the first Taiwan-US Digital Economy Forum, established and announced jointly by officials from the two nations during a visit to Taiwan this past June by Charles H. Rivkin, US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. This forum will help round out the system of bilateral talks between Taiwan and the US, which is most gratifying, said the president.
President Ma mentioned that US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael Bloomberg wrote a letter to Taiwan's United Daily News this past November 29 to express their support for international cooperation in the effort to cut carbon emissions and fight climate change, and to call upon the mayors of major cities throughout the world to form international coalitions to work together for energy conservation and carbon reduction.
The president pointed out that the ROC is not a UN member, and therefore cannot be a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or the Kyoto Protocol. But as a member of the international community and one of the world's 20 largest trading nations, the ROC nevertheless bears a responsibility to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
Commenting on the ROC government's efforts to achieve these goals, President Ma stated that upon taking office in 2008, he began actively promoting the passage of the so-called "four energy laws"—the Renewable Energy Development Act; Energy Administration Act; Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act; and Energy Tax Act—the first three of which have already been passed into law. Within government agencies, he has been pushing a "four conservations" campaign (conservation of fuel, electricity, water, and paper). While running for re-election four years ago he also proposed an energy policy designed to "ensure nuclear safety, gradually reduce reliance on nuclear power, and create a green power and low-carbon environment to gradually become a nuclear-free country," which he pledged to do while ensuring "no power rationing, maintaining reasonable power prices, and fulfilling the nation's pledges to the international community to reduce carbon emissions."
In order to build a low-carbon, green-energy environment, said the president, the ROC is promoting the Green Energy Industry Program, which focuses on promoting four key green energy industries: PV, LED, wind power, and energy information and communication technology (EICT). Last year (2014), these industries generated a total output value of NT$488.4 billion and created 70,000 jobs, with Taiwan ranked second in global production volume of solar cells, second in global LED backlight module production value, and third in LED lighting optoelectronic component production value. This highlights Taiwan's international competitiveness in the development of green energy industries.
Remarking on the nation's energy challenges, President Ma mentioned that many in Taiwan became leery of nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan on March 11, 2011, and began to pin their hopes on renewable energy as a replacement for nuclear power. But renewable energy sources are limited by intermittent availability. The capacity utilization factor for wind turbines, for example, is only 28%. The turbines operate mostly during the winter, and are of no help at all when power usage peaks in the summer. For solar power plants, the capacity utilization factor is a mere 14%, so Taiwan still needs more stable energy sources—including fossil fuels and nuclear power—for its base load power supply.
President Ma pointed out that The Wall Street Journal this past summer published an editorial entitled "Taiwan Chooses Vulnerability" in which it argued that Taiwan would be unwise, given its energy environment and natural conditions, to hastily abandon nuclear power. Statistics indicate, said the president, that nuclear power remains part of the energy mix even in such countries as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (all oil-producing Middle Eastern nations), Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (which are vigorously developing green energy), and Russia, the US, and Japan (all of which have experienced nuclear disasters). It is thus clear that abandoning nuclear power is not a worldwide trend.
President Ma further mentioned that Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Chairman Bruce Cheng (鄭崇華) of Delta Electronics, and Far Eastern Group Chairman Douglas Tong Hsu (徐旭東) have all in one way or another expressed concern about Taiwan's power supply, and are highly doubtful that renewables can replace nuclear power. In addition, there are currently more nuclear generator units in the US than anywhere else in the world. US energy policy has not eliminated nuclear power, and in fact allows for the establishment of new nuclear generator units. Some officials and experts have also stated that "our real enemy is coal." The question of whether to assign higher priority to the reduction of carbon emissions or the discontinuation of nuclear power has an important bearing on Taiwan's future, said the president, adding that everyone in Taiwan must face these challenges together.