ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said July 2 that the government is looking at all options to achieve an optimal resource mix in reconciling energy policy with the challenges of climate change, expressing hopes for Taiwan and the U.S. to deepen cooperation in the development of renewable energy.
Ma made the remarks while receiving John Bryson, a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and current Distinguished Senior Public Policy Scholar at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Bryson served as chairman and president of Edison International for 18 years, and founded the National Resources Defense Council in the 1970s, making him a longstanding advocate of alternative energy and environmental issues, Ma said.
In response to the problems of global warming and climate change, Ma reiterated the nation’s committed goals to reduce carbon emissions to the 2005 level by 2020, and further reduction to the 2000 level by 2025. Taiwan’s natural resources are severely limited, with more than 98 percent of energy imported. The nation’s installed electric capacity of renewable energy has increased 23-fold since he came to power in 2008 as a result of developing multiple energy resources, Ma added.
The problem of optimizing the energy mix is of paramount importance for ROC government. As to whether the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant would come on line, the president said the issue would be decided by public debates and a referendum in the coming months.
Ma said Taiwan and the U.S. state of Idaho signed in April a memorandum of understanding on developing the island’s geothermal energy resources in a hope that the nation could profit from the state’s experience and advanced technology to find suitable solutions. U.S. President Barack Obama recently appointed nuclear scientist and nuclear power supporter Ernest Moniz as secretary of energy, Ma said, and he hoped this would help both sides continue to deepen their cooperation in this field.
The U.S. is Taiwan’s third-largest trading partner and export market, while Taiwan is America’s No. 11 trade partner and No. 16 export destination, the president said. In 2012, bilateral trade reached US$63.2 billion, ample demonstration of the depth of bilateral economic relations, he added. Taiwan formally entered the U.S. Visa Waiver Program Nov. 1, 2012, effectively boosting the ease with which 400,000 ROC citizens travel to the U.S. each year and further strengthening two-way exchanges, the president said.
