Taiwan must accelerate climate action, build response system: Experts

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Taiwan should accelerate emissions cuts before 2035 while building a more effective system to automatically respond to climate risks, two Taiwan experts said Wednesday, following a new United Nations report warning that global warming is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said an overshoot of the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is increasingly difficult to avoid. Even if countries fulfill their current climate commitments, global temperatures could peak at around 1.8 degrees, it said.

In a news release issued by the Science Media Center Taiwan on Wednesday, the experts discussed the report's implications for Taiwan, arguing that both emissions cuts and adaptations are important.

Engineering Associate Professor Hsu Hsin-wei (徐昕煒) from the National Taipei University of Technology said the key message from the report is not to give up on the 1.5-degree target, but to minimize how high temperatures rise and how long they remain above the threshold.

He compared the situation to a vehicle that has lost control and is speeding. The greater the speed and the longer it continues, the greater the risk, making it crucial to reduce emissions quickly and shorten the period of overshoot, Hsu said.

For Taiwan, climate monitoring should be directly linked to action rather than simply producing data or warnings, Hsu said.

Authorities could establish clear thresholds for heat, river levels, reservoir storage, emergency room visits and electricity demand, with specific measures automatically triggered when those thresholds are reached, Hsu added.

Such measures could include assessing whether to suspend work or classes, reallocating water supplies, deploying pumps and providing additional assistance to vulnerable groups, he said.

Chen Cheng-ta (陳正達), an earth science professor from National Taiwan Normal University, said Taiwan's climate policy should focus not only on its 2050 net-zero emissions target, but also on rapidly cutting cumulative emissions by 2030-2035.

Both experts said Taiwan should also conduct climate stress tests based on a range of future conditions, rather than relying mainly on historical averages or a single projected year, particularly for extreme heat and heavy rainfall.