The Presidential Office organized the first National Climate Change Policy Committee meeting on August 8, with participation from industry, government, academia, and civil society.
Committee member and Citizen of the Earth Chairman Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) expressed his appreciation of Presidential Office efforts and mentioned the biggest consensus in the meeting was the need to actively develop renewable energy. However, he said that while nuclear power attracts significant public concern, it was not substantially discussed in the meeting, furthering a lack of new nuclear technologies understanding and confusion over the required conditions for any extension of nuclear power plants.
Lee elaborated that he believes, despite the two nuclear power referendums, media has hyped up nuclear fusion technology prospects, making many people mistakenly believe that significant progress has been made. He said that the government must set up an accurate information platform and dialogue mechanism on these matters.
Meanwhile, the environmental group Greenpeace expressed concerns over Taipower Chairman Tseng Wen-sheng’s (曾文生) presentation, saying that he avoided the topic of green energy and only emphasized the use of natural gas power plants to meet future demands of AI and semiconductor industries. The global network stated that Taiwan’s renewable energy is insufficient to meet the industries’ current demand and accelerating its stability is vital. Greenpeace urged the government to refer to green transition policies introduced recently in the U.S., Japan, and Australia in their push for renewable energy development.