Between Jan. 1 and the end of this month, humanity will exhaust Mother Nature’s biocapacity for the entire year of 2022.
Biocapacity is the ability of ecosystems to regenerate resources and absorb waste. If they’re left alone, depleted fish stocks may recover, soil can regain its health and woodlands that have been thinned will regrow. Both oceans and forests absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.
But since around 1971, the world as a whole has been consuming ecosystem services and outputs faster than nature can regenerate them. Earth Overshoot Day exists to alert people to this alarming truth.
<strong>#MOVETHEDATE</strong>
Defining the day as the point
While the government’s proposed strategies to reduce carbon emissions generally align with those of the UN, government agencies have set relatively conservative targets to achieve the nation’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, an Academia Sinica researcher said yesterday.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Monday released the third part of its Sixth Assessment Report.
Local experts were yesterday invited to comment on the report at a news conference hosted by the Science Media Center Taiwan.
Alan Lin (林子倫), deputy executive director of the Executive Yuan’s Office of Energy and Carbon Reduction, told the news
Environmental groups yesterday urged the government to fine-tune its efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, one day after the National Development Council revealed its road map to reach that goal by 2050.
The groups made five suggestions, saying that they hoped the government would be open to their input.
The suggestions addressed the government’s timeline for banning coal as an energy source, largely by replacing it with natural gas; the subsequent phasing out of natural gas; policies to help industries transition to cleaner energy sources; green transportation goals; and increasing coal prices and reviewing climate regulations.
Dennis Wei (魏揚), a researcher with the
A coalition of environmental groups yesterday issued recommendations for moving toward a zero-carbon future, including calls for a timeline to eliminate emissions that includes greater public input and participation.
A roadmap for eliminating carbon emissions was promised last year, but the delay has not contributed to a more complete or refined plan, Taiwan Environment and Planning Association chairman Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯) told a news conference in Taipei.
Public dialogue has been ineffective and agencies are shifting responsibility among themselves, he said, adding that no ministry has yet been willing to take the lead in ensuring transitional justice for workers and disadvantaged groups.
Studies
A national climate conference to coordinate policy should be established, a coalition of environmental groups said yesterday as it revealed its recommendations for changes to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act (溫室氣體減量及管理法).
The groups made the remark at a news conference two days after the Taipei-based Chinese National Federation of Industries asked the government to drop a policy goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
The environmental groups opposed the federation’s stance, saying that Taiwan should not deviate from the global consensus of reaching carbon neutrality by that year.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Oct. 21 last year issued a notice to