A belching smokestack at an industrial plant in Taiwan poses a striking contrast to a wind farm on its coast. The govenment agency in charge of environmental protection admitted yesterday there is room for Taiwan to improve in the area of carbon-dioxide emissions reduction. CNA

TAIPEI: The decline in Taiwan's performance in protecting the environment from climate change shows that it still has room for improvement, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.

However, it noted that Taiwan's carbon dioxide emission volume in 2008 posted negative growth for the first time.

According to the fifth Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) released Monday by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, Taiwan ranks 47th among 57 economies, with a score of 47.5 this year, down from 32nd in the previous year when its score was 51.5.

Taiwan's performance has been rated as "poor" for both years.

The CCPI compares the climate protection performance of 57 industrialized countries and emerging economies.

The 57 countries and economies together account for more than 90 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions.

The CCPI contains three partial ratings, including the evaluation of emissions trends, that of an economy's current emissions level, and that of a government's domestic and international climate policies.

Taiwan was not evaluated as part of the system until 2008, when it was ranked 32nd among 57 economies in the CCPI for 2009 with 51.5 points, a performance better than neighboring economies Singapore, South Korea, Japan and the mainland.

But in the CCPI for 2010, Taiwan scored only 47.5 points, which relegated it to the "poor" category.

According to the 2010 index, Taiwan's performance in carbon emissions reduction was seen to be better than only Malaysia and the mainland in Asia, while lagging behind India, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

EPA chief Stephen Shu-hung Shen said the results indicate that other economies have performed better than Taiwan and that Taiwan needs to work harder to push its ranking upward.

But he pointed out that Taiwan's efforts to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions have produced some initial results.

For example, the volume of Taiwan's carbon dioxide emissions in 2008 was 4.4 percent lower than the previous year, and the per capita emission was 4 percent lower, Shen said.

Despite Taiwan's unsatisfactory overall performance, Shen pointed out, it is ranked 7th in terms of climate policy this year.

This, he said, demonstrates that the various carbon reduction measures adopted by the government, including the enactment of the Renewable Energy Development Act, have won Taiwan international recognition.

Meanwhile, EPA deputy chief Chiu Wen-yen, who was in Copenhagen to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, told the Central News Agency that there is a need for Taiwan's industrial and electricity generation sectors to increase their awareness on climate protection.

He noted that more than 60 percent of Taiwan's carbon dioxide emissions are from the electricity generation sector.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/16/2009 page2)