Taiwan’s government efforts to push for net zero emission by 2050 is expected to raise investments and eventually boost the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.56 percentage points on average, said Kung Ming-hsin (???), head of the National Development Council, Taiwan’s top economic planning body, on Friday.
To achieve the net zero emission goal, the government plans to spend almost NT$900 billion (US$30.75 billion) from this year until 2030, which is expected to create more business opportunities for the private sector to follow suit and invest in, said Kung.
Speaking at an environmental summit in Taipei on Earth Day Friday, titled “100 Re-Actions! The Solutions for Our Earth,” Kung said he was upbeat and forecast that the involvement of both the public and private sectors in the green environmental initiatives is expected to add 0.56 percentage points to Taiwan’s economic growth on average every year.
Kung said the government would come up with policies to develop 12 environmentally friendly critical industries, such as offshore wind power and solar power, hydrogen energy, energy storage, power systems, power conservation, carbon capture and storage, electric vehicles, resource recycling and zero waste for clean energy, and green industries.
Kung added the 12 critical industries were expected to allow private enterprises to explore tremendous business opportunities, in particular in offshore wind power and solar power development, and forecast the two kinds of green power development would attract more than NT$3 trillion in investments over the next eight years as part of efforts to increase GDP growth.
In addition, the government will provide energy conservation incentives to persuade the private sector to replace old equipment with highly efficient energy storage systems, which is expected to provide an additional boost to the local economy.
Also addressing the environmental summit, President Tsai Ing-wen (???) said the NDC unveiled a road map in March for Taiwan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 by developing an economy that would either emit no greenhouse gases or offset its emissions. She added that the government would use technology development and climate laws to facilitate energy transformation, industrial transformation, life transformation, and social transformation to speed up the pace of net zero emissions.
Tsai said the Executive Yuan on Thursday passed a draft revision to the “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act” by including the net zero emission goal in the law, while the government would create a carbon pricing mechanism and a comprehensive carbon footprint verification mechanism.
In addition to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act, which will be renamed the “Climate Change Response Act, Tsai said the government would also push for amendments to the Energy Administration Act and the Renewable Energy Development Act.
Meanwhile, the government will encourage the financial sector to upgrade by adopting technology to become a greener industry, said Tsai.
Echoing Kung, the president said the government would invest in forward-looking technologies such as hydrogen energy and geothermal energy, and along with green energy development, would strengthen the country’s smart power grid network to facilitate new energy distribution.
The government has a goal to have renewable energy account for more than 60 percent of Taiwan’s electricity by 2050, while hydrogen energy and thermal power using carbon capture technologies are forecast to make up 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively, according to Tsai. She said the government was determined to build Taiwan into a green energy development center in Asia.
The environmental summit opened Friday and will run through Sunday.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel