Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Three of Taiwan’s presidential candidates will take part in a televised climate policy debate next month, the event’s organizers, Greenpeace Taiwan and the International Climate Development Institute (ICDI), said on Thursday.
At a press conference, ICDI director Chao Kung-yueh (???) said the debate will take place on Oct. 21, and that the nominees of Taiwan’s three largest political parties — Vice President Lai Ching-te (???) of the Democratic Progressive Party, Hou Yu-ih (???) of the Kuomintang, and Ko Wen-je (???) of the Taiwan People’s Party — have agreed to attend.
In terms of format, Greenpeace project manager Chang Li-hsin (???) said the candidates would take questions from representatives of the media, academia and the business world, as well as questions submitted online by members of the public.
Due to time constraints, however, the candidates may not be able to respond to each other’s answers or otherwise engage in back-and-forth debate, she said.
Chang said the two other candidates in the presidential race — Foxconn founder Terry Gou (???) and former Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-chih (???) — could also be invited, depending on how their efforts to collect signatures and qualify for the ballot are going.
Although Taiwan’s presidential candidates have laid out their energy policy proposals — mainly hinging on their support or opposition to nuclear energy — to date, none have published a formal climate or environmental platform.
On Thursday, Greenpeace called on the candidates to commit, and put forward plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent and ensure renewable energy sources account for 40 percent of Taiwan’s energy mix by 2030.
In 2022, 82.42 percent of the energy generated in Taiwan came from fossil fuels (mainly coal and liquified natural gas), while 8.28 percent came from renewables, 8.24 percent from nuclear power, and 1.06 percent from pumped storage hydropower, according to Bureau of Energy data.
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