President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) presided over the second meeting of the National Climate Change Committee on Thursday, where he announced his plans to prepare Taiwan for new carbon reduction goals.
At the meeting, Environment Minister Peng Chi-ming (彭啓明) reported on the progress of public sector sustainability plans and Vice Economic Minister Lien Ching-chang (連錦漳) reported on advanced energy-saving initiatives. After listening to the reports, Lai expressed his support for a top-down approach to carbon reduction efforts and called on all government agencies as well as key research institutions such as the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Academia Sinica to lead by example. This includes conducting internal carbon audits including water, electricity, and fuel usage evaluations, electrifying government vehicles by 2030, and setting a higher budget allocation for green procurement.
Lai added that, as countries around the world get ready to submit new 2035 nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which are commitments countries make to reduce greenhouse gas, Taiwan must keep pace with global initiatives and aim to propose its new carbon reduction targets for 2032 by January of next year. The president requested that all committee members gather consensus to propose practical, systematic solutions, and more frequently deliberate on Taiwan's 2032 carbon reduction targets.