Taiwan committed to reach net zero by 2050. But can it?

The self-ruled island passed a law to achieve net zero by 2050, but its relative lenience on the dirty industrial sector is alarming experts.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen signed a historic climate change law last month, which is set to bring the self-ruled island to its net zero goal by 2050.

But while the landmark Climate Change Response Act is widely viewed as a significant step forward in Taiwan’s green commitment, experts and NGOs caution that more needs to be done.

The Act sets a legally binding target for the island to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in response to the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the increase of global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial levels. This comes despite the exclusion of Taiwan from the annual UN Climate Change Conference due to its longstanding sovereignty conflict with Beijing, which calls regards self-governing Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China.

Among other stipulations, the new law includes the establishment of a carbon pricing system, the implementation of climate adaptation measures and the designation of ministries’ respective responsibilities in reducing emissions. In terms of energy transition, Taiwan plans to boost the share of renewables in its energy mix to 20 percent and natural gas to 50 percent by 2025, as well as reducing the share of coal to 30 percent.

Currently, coal still dominates the island’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels, despite accounting for only about a third of its electricity generation.

Energy Transition Challenges

Huisun Tsai, a campaign director of energy transition and climate change at Citizen of the Earth Taiwan, told FairPlanet that relying on natural gas for energy transition is inevitable.

“The Taiwanese government has been signing deals with different countries to purchase natural gas in order to secure the fuel amid short supply brought on by the Ukraine war,” Tsai said.

But the increase in natural gas use cannot go on indefinitely, she added. “There’s a point in time it has to drop, but which year will it start going down? The government hasn’t set this target yet.”

Learn more: Fair Planet