Taipei In order to get a sense of the issues that Taiwan is facing as the climate changes, we met with two groups: the Green Citizens Action Alliance and the Taiwan Climate Action Network.
The GCCA is an older organization at more than twenty years. One of their major campaigns dating to their founding has been to ban nuclear plants from the island. They explained there were three plants, but two have been aged and phased out, and the third is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2025. There is another nuclear plant that has been under construction for more than twenty years and may never be completed. We were surprised that almost 40% of energy generation on the island still comes from coal with LNG the other big source. Alternative sources frequently face land use struggles in the competing needs of agriculture versus energy.
The Taiwan Climate Action Network on the other hand is a cross between a climate think tank of sorts, and a federation of five other major environmental groups including GCCA from all around the island. The other groups included the Environmental Rights Foundation, the Taiwan Energy and Rights Organization, the Citizens of the Earth, and the Homemakers Union. Homemakers is an organization that dates back to martial law and is something of a misnomer. The organization was able to be very active under that name when the government at the time felt less threatened by an organization talking about environmental and consumer rights. Taiwan Climate Action Network focuses on island-wide issues by providing the research and support for these campaigns.
Citizens was interesting in that it claimed 2000 dues-paying members. Many of the other organizations had smaller member and donor bases. GCCA told us they had about forty members and 400 donors, for example. Taiwan Climate Action Network was largely able to organize as a federation and think tank with donations from external sources such as the Rockefeller and Bloomberg Foundations based in the US.
We talked about housing retrofits and the disincentives between tenants and landlords on energy costs. We were surprised to learn that energy cost to the Taiwanese consumer is less than 2% of their monthly expenses thanks to government subsidies.
We had interesting conversations about how role of the environment in politics. They reported that both major parties claimed to be addressing climate and environmental issues. The Green Party had not been able to make the 5% national voting threshold, but had won some seats in local and civic elections, not unlike the experience in Canada and elsewhere. The Green New Deal was a subject of interest, but not much progress.
The frontline climate issues were typhoons and earthquakes. We had a shake early in our visit. Typhoons had forced infrastructure changes. One in recent decades flooded the subway system, closing it for six months and nearly crippling the economy. We had noticed there were now raised steps around most subway entrances from three to five feet, which had obviously been part of the remediation.
Most of the team from both organizations in our meeting were researchers. It wasn’t clear exactly how they handled direct organizing and base building, but the researchers were obviously campaigners in different topics. From their reports on the nuclear issue for example they had mounted and won referenda on the continued use of nuclear power. They worried that the government was trying to find loopholes, but they were vigilant.
The island lies in precarious geological and oceanic waters. The environment and climate change is as ever present an issue and concern as their giant neighbor across the strait.