According to the National Development Council's "2050 Net Zero Carbon Emissions Pathway," Taiwan expects electric motorcycles to account for 35% of all vehicles sold on the market by 2030, and all new passenger cars, including new cars, to be fully electrified by 2040. The Smart Mobility Association of Taiwan (SMAT), composed of electric motorcycle-related companies, released its "2022 Taiwan Electric Motorcycle Industry Policy Proposal" today (1st), proposing to reach 50% of the electric motorcycle target by 2030, while also encouraging local governments to set a timetable for achieving the target earlier than 2040. SMAT recommends that the government accelerate the achievement of the vehicle electrification goal through strategies such as increasing subsidy incentives, improving the environmentally friendly environment, or using policies to reward companies for choosing electric vehicles as their ESG solutions. Legislator Wang Wanyu and civil society groups also reminded that "people-oriented transportation" is the key to carbon reduction in the transportation sector, and that green public transportation should be promoted more actively. In order to achieve full electrification of new motorcycles sold by 2040, the industry calls for strengthening mid-term goals. The National Development Council announced Taiwan’s "2050 Net Zero Carbon Emission Path" in March this year. In terms of the transportation sector, the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 were approximately 36.99 million metric tons of CO2e, accounting for 12.8% of the country. Its emissions mainly came from road transportation, accounting for about 96.8%. It can be seen that promoting low-carbon or zero-carbon road vehicles is the primary path to net-zero transportation emissions. The current international trend is to replace traditional fuel vehicles with electric vehicles, so "vehicle electrification" has also been specifically included in the net-zero strategy. The National Development Council plans to achieve the goal of electric vehicles by 2030.

The New Taipei City Government released the "New Taipei City 2050 Net Zero Path and Climate Action White Paper" yesterday (24th), and proposed the draft "New Taipei City Climate Change Response Action Autonomous Regulations", which will invest NT$20 billion annually in the four major areas of "energy transformation efficiency improvement", "smart transportation", "circular economy", and "resilience adaptation", including community low-carbon transformation, the construction of geothermal power generation demonstration areas and the promotion of solar photovoltaic citizen power plants, the prohibition of providing disposable items in 2030 and the full electrification of official cars and motorcycles in 2035. It is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 30% (13.37 million tons) in 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions in 2050. Residential and commercial sectors have become the largest source of carbon emissions! New Taipei City pioneered the community "Energy Saving Clinic" and promoted household energy management systems. The "New Taipei City 2050 Net Zero Path and Climate Action White Paper" covers different departments such as residential and commercial, environment, industry, energy, and transportation, and is expected to invest NT$20 billion annually to implement carbon reduction strategies. At the same time, the draft of the "New Taipei City Climate Change Response Action Autonomous Ordinance" is being drafted to establish a legal basis for various carbon reduction measures in construction, commerce, industry, and transportation. At the same time, the "New Taipei Climate Fund" will also be established to use the carbon fees collected in the future for energy transformation work in schools, households or groups, including equipment energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy installations. According to statistics, New Taipei City's net greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 were 17.84 million metric tons, a decrease of about 6.7% from the base year (2005), and per capita carbon emissions decreased by 13.5%. Among them, emissions accounted for 39.41% of the residential and commercial sectors, and the industrial sector accounted for 2.

The Large Electricity User Clause, which has been in effect for nearly two years, requires companies with contracted capacity of 5,000 kilowatts (kW) or more to fulfill their obligation to use 10% green electricity within five years. With the review deadline approaching, the Taiwan Renewable Energy Alliance (TRENA) released its 2021 annual statistics on the 19th, showing that among the top 20 carbon-emitting companies in Taiwan, TSMC, which has the highest percentage of green electricity use, only accounts for 4% of its electricity consumption, while the remaining 19 companies use less than 1%. These 20 companies account for 44.6% of Taiwan's total carbon emissions. TRENA is urging companies to actively improve and hopes the government will tighten requirements for large electricity users. Legislators have also called on the executive branch to expedite the release of draft amendments to the three energy laws to align with the country's net zero goal and build a more comprehensive green electricity supply and demand system. Large carbon emitters only use a small amount of green electricity, and only TSMC accounts for more than 1%. According to the Taiwan Renewable Energy Promotion Alliance, among the top 20 domestic carbon emitters in 2021, only a few companies have built renewable energy for their own use. Among them, TSMC has the highest proportion of green electricity, with a usage of more than 4%, while other companies' green electricity accounts for less than 1%. Looking at the data, the second highest is Sinopec at about 0.87%, and the third-ranked CPC Taiwan is about 0.14%. Further review of the report submitted by TRENA, its data source is the ESG reports disclosed by various companies. Due to the different levels of information disclosure of each company, the calculation methods are slightly different. For example, TSMC only announced that its global electricity consumption is about 16 billion kWh, and the conversion of 660 million kWh of green electricity used in Taiwan resulted in a data of 4.11%, which is different from the data of TSMC.

With the pandemic easing and domestic tourism resuming, Lanyu and Green Island have seen an influx of tourists, but this has also brought with it a significant amount of waste, leaving island landfills piled high. Due to the high cost of transporting waste back to Taiwan, the Taitung County Environmental Protection Bureau has diligently cleared and hauled away waste from these islands, but this only addresses the symptoms rather than the root cause. The Bureau urges visitors to these islands to reduce their use of disposable items and reduce waste at the source. Green Island launched a free, recyclable cup rental service this year, a pilot program that lasted nearly six months. Many businesses on the island have also stepped up to offer lunch box rentals, encouraging visitors to practice environmentally friendly, "waste-free" tourism. The hope is that visitors to Green Island will leave behind memories, not waste. Disposal efforts across seas and mountains have left island landfills near capacity. During peak tourist season, thousands of people flock to the islands daily, bringing both business opportunities and waste. Disposable toiletries, disposable tableware, plastic bags, and beverage cups used by tourists place a significant burden on the islands. In the past, Taitung County did not have an incinerator, so the garbage from Orchid Island and Green Island had to be shipped across the sea to Taitung, and then transferred and detoured halfway across Taiwan to other counties and cities such as Pingtung and Kaohsiung for processing. The transportation costs were very high, which resulted in frequent failures in waste transfer contracts, and a large amount of waste had to be temporarily placed in the island landfill. According to the Environmental Protection Administration's landfill information system, the total capacity of the Orchid Island landfill is about 39,000 cubic meters, but currently only 41 cubic meters remain, and the garbage is almost full; the total capacity of the Green Island landfill is 54,000 cubic meters, but currently less than 20% of the space is left. A large amount of waste has piled up a garbage mountain on the beautiful island. This year, the Taitung incinerator was officially put into use, and the first task was to solve the two problems of leaving

The Ministry of Economic Affairs is accelerating the phase-out of fixed-frequency air conditioners and recently announced an increase in the "Permissible Energy Consumption Standard" (MEPS) for air conditioners, which is expected to take effect in January 2025. The Bureau of Energy estimates that once the new energy standard is implemented, it will save approximately 7.118 million kWh of electricity annually, saving NT$20.22 million in electricity bills. The Bureau of Energy also reminds the public that when purchasing air conditioners, in addition to choosing inverter models, they can also identify first-class energy-efficiency products and compare the CSPF value on the rating label; the higher the value, the more energy-efficient they are. The Bureau of Energy raises the energy efficiency standard for air conditioners and phases out energy-consuming fixed-frequency air conditioners. With the recent high temperatures across Taiwan, staying indoors and turning on the air conditioner is the preferred way for many people to escape the heat. However, among all electrical appliances, air conditioners actually consume the most electricity. According to the Industrial Technology Research Institute's 2021 "Household Electricity Consumption Habits Survey", the largest proportion of household electricity consumption is air conditioners (29.46%), followed by refrigerators (11.98%) and lighting (9.92%); in the summer months, nearly half of household electricity consumption comes from air conditioners (49.25%). According to statistics from the Bureau of Energy, in 2021, residential electricity consumption accounted for approximately 18% of national electricity consumption. In order to reduce electricity consumption in the residential sector, the Bureau of Energy announced that it will increase the MEPS of "ductless air conditioners" (commonly known as air conditioners) in 2025, guide the industry to launch more efficient products, and promote the withdrawal of high-energy-consuming fixed-frequency air conditioners. The energy efficiency of air conditioners depends on the CSPF value. The energy benchmark has been raised by 3~5%. Since 2017, the indicator for determining the energy efficiency of air conditioners has been changed from the original "energy efficiency ratio" (EER) to the inclusion of non-

The Taiwan Wind Power Industry Development Association held its inaugural meeting yesterday (19th). Founding members include more than 40 domestic companies such as Century Wind Power, Hsin Kong Steel, Walsin Lihua, Senwei Energy, Huacheng Electric, and Shihlin Electric. Lai Wen-hsiang, chairman of Century Wind Power, who serves as the chairman, said that a wind turbine has hundreds of parts from top to bottom, and currently most of the localization projects are just assembly. The association's goal is to improve the local supply chain, from small screws to large generators, all of which must be produced by ourselves. Connecting the local wind power supply chain, the goal is "all made in Taiwan from top to bottom" In order to strengthen the domestic wind power supply chain capabilities, relevant companies formed the Taiwan Wind Power Industry Development Association and held its inaugural meeting and the first board of directors and supervisors on the 19th. The first chairman of the association was elected by Lai Wen-hsiang, chairman of Century Wind Power. Lai Wen-hsiang said that a wind turbine has hundreds of components, and the current localization policy is mostly just assembly work. Important components such as generators rarely use domestic parts, which is not helpful to the local industry. The association's goal is to connect the domestic supply chain, "from a screw to a generator", all produced in Taiwan. Lai Wen-hsiang also mentioned that the number of wind farms will increase exponentially in the future. Once the local supply chain is established, it will also be possible to attract foreign generator manufacturers to set up factories in Taiwan and introduce key motor technologies. In his speech, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Quan-neng stated that the domestic wind power industry does need to establish localized production capacity, and organizing the association is like preparing to "carry out the energy of tomorrow." In the future, the central government will continue to cooperate across ministries and local governments to help the industry supply chain consolidate the upper and middle

In response to climate change, and to prevent the next drought, the Water Resources Agency plans to build a desalination plant on the island. The Environmental Protection Agency held the 423rd environmental impact assessment meeting yesterday (13th) to review the "Tainan Desalination Plant Construction Plan" and the "Hsinchu Desalination Plant Construction Plan", and both proposals were approved. In the future, the two desalination plants will be in operation, with a total water production of up to 300,000 CMD (tons/day), but will also consume 384 million kWh of electricity each year. Water supply has been unstable in recent years. The Water Resources Agency: Building a desalination plant will increase water supply resilience. In recent years, severe droughts have occurred frequently, and the problem of tight regional water supply has come to the fore. Although Tainan has the Zengwen and Nanhua reservoirs, they are greatly affected by the wet and dry seasons. In the past ten years, seven of them have implemented water supply reductions for people's livelihood, industry or irrigation due to low rainfall; Hsinchu has to adjust the water sources of the Shimen Reservoir in Taoyuan and the Yongheshan Reservoir in Miaoli for a long time because the capacity of the Baoyi and Baoer Reservoirs is relatively small. In order to reduce the risk of water shortage, the Water Resources Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to build desalination plants on state-owned land along the coast of Jiangjun, Tainan and Nanliao, Hsinchu. At the environmental impact assessment conference yesterday, the Water Resources Agency stated that in addition to Taiwan, record-breaking droughts have also occurred around the world. Taiwan is surrounded by the sea, and the construction of desalination plants will help improve the resilience of water supply. The Tainan Desalination Plant and the Hsinchu Desalination Plant, planned by the Southern District Water Resources Bureau and the Northern District Water Resources Bureau of the Water Resources Agency respectively, passed the environmental impact assessment conference yesterday. The Hsinchu plant covers an area of ​​10 hectares and has a water production capacity of 100,000 CMD; the Tainan plant covers an area of ​​17 hectares and will be built in two phases. The first phase will produce 100,000 CMD. After five years of operation, the second phase will be added, and the water production will increase to 200,000 CMD.