Taiwan announced its goals for achieving carbon net-zero by 2050 on Wednesday. The National Development Council (NDC) said that Taiwan should reach net-zero carbon by 2050 through a combination of renewable energy, carbon capture, hydrogen, and hydroelectric technologies. It aims to make renewable energy account for 60 to 70% of its energy mix by 2050.
In 2020, renewable energy accounted for only about 6% of Taiwan’s energy mix while coal-fired power and natural gas made up 45% and 36% of power production respectively.
NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin said Taiwan should move towards adopting more electric vehicles and green buildings. He says Taiwan should only sell electric vehicles by 2040.
Kung said that air pollution in 2050 should be 30% less than that of 2019.
Taiwan also plans to rely less on energy imports. In 2021, Taiwan imported 97.4% of its energy. The goal is to decrease that number to 50% or less by 2050.
Kung said that the government plans to invest NT$900 billion (US$31.5 billion) to achieve these goals, while the private sector is likely to invest much more.
“Net-zero” refers to the policy of balancing greenhouse gas emissions and removal from the atmosphere.