President Ma Ying-jeou said the most important goal for Taiwan’s energy policy is to find the best combination of energy to be used in the country.
Ma met in Taichung with other ministers to discuss carbon reduction. He said the efficiency of power generated by renewable energy is low. Taiwan must find enough renewable energy to be able to reduce nuclear energy.
“We have been setting up thousands of generators at sea and on land, and hundreds of thousands of solar panel roofs. We are building them at a speed even faster than before. The biggest problem is these two kinds of renewable energy are not base load power. They cannot replace fossil fuel or nuclear energy. Whether we are able to reduce carbon emissions depends on whether we can find enough substitutes for renewable energy. The current situation is not easy.”
Premier Mao Chi-kuo said the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December could set the newest international carbon reduction standard. Mao said the government is paying close attention to the level of emission reductions it plans to commit, namely the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC).
“Our target is we hope that by 2030, we would be able to reduce carbon emissions by 20% of the level in 2005. In other words, our INDC in 2030 would be about in the middle,” said Premier Mao.