Taiwan `poor` on climate

Taiwan dropped 15 places and was ranked at the bottom of `poor` countries in a worldwide gauge of national emission reduction performance released in sideline of the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit yesterday (December 15). Taiwan was ranked 47th and received 47.5 points in the Climate Change Performance Index 2010 (CCPI), lagging behind India, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea in Asia while fared only better than China and Malaysia.



The CCPI, an annual index compiled by non-governmental think tank Germanwatch and European environment group alliance Climate Action Network (CAN), compares the climate protection performance of 57 industrialised countries and emerging economies which together account for more than 90 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions.



It was only the second year Taiwan was included in the CCPI. The island was ranked 32nd place among 57 countries in last year`s index. With 51.5 points, Taiwan performed better than its Asian neighbours of Singapore, South Korea, Japan and China.





While noting that Taiwan`s CO2 emission volume posted negative growth for the first time in 2008, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) conceded yesterday that the decline in Taiwan CCPI ranking shows that there is still room for improvement.



EPA Minister Shen Shu-hung said he was surprised at Taiwan`s CCPI drop despite the island`s improvement in both energy intensity and emission intensity (CO2 emission by ratio of GDP). The volume of Taiwan`s carbon dioxide emissions in 2008 was 4.4 per cent lower than the previous year, and the per capita emissions were 4 per cent lower, Shen said.



He said that the result indicated that other countries have advanced even faster than Taiwan and the island needs to work harder to push its ranking upward.



The CCPI evaluates countries in three ways including the evaluation of emissions trends, a country`s current emissions level, and a country`s national and international climate policies.



Taiwan was ranked to behind the 40th place in all the evaluation of carbon emissions of power departments, the CO2 emission volume of every unit of preliminary energy sources.



like coal and crude oil, and the per-capita consumption of the preliminary energy sources.



Taiwan performed better with its climate policies, and was seen as having improved in the CO2 emissions of road transportation, as well as those of the manufacturing and construction sectors. The government passed the Renewable Energy Development Act on June and aimed to increase Taiwan`s renewable energy generation capacity by 6.5 million kilowatts to 10 million kilowatts within 20 years.



In the latest CCPI index, Brazil, Sweden, Britain and Germany all recorded the best performance, while China and the United States placed in the `very poor` category along with Australia and Canada.





The China Post/Asia News Network