[Politics] Taiwanese people most sensitive to high temperatures; environmental groups urge candidates to propose household climate action policies.
bellala 央廣7h ago
With about 200 days left until the year-end local elections, environmental groups such as the Climate Policy Association released a climate and energy poll today (22nd), indicating that about 35.6% of Taiwanese people consider high temperatures to be the most tangible climate impact, and over 50% of people believe that households will inevitably incur increased related expenses due to climate change in the future. They call on all county and city mayoral candidates to propose household climate action policies such as electric vehicles and home electrification to respond to the public's needs. #CNA Reporter Cheng Yu-han reporting#
Regarding the impacts and effects of climate change on Taiwanese people, the Climate Policy Association and the Mothers for Climate Action Alliance, among other environmental groups, released the results of a climate and energy poll on the 22nd. The results show that among various climate impacts, 35.6% of respondents felt the most impact from extreme high temperatures and heatwaves, followed by the frequency of extreme rainfall. Additionally, 52.4% of people believe that their households will have to increase related expenses within the next five years due to climate change.
Huang Yeh-tang, Executive Director of the Climate Policy Association, stated that this poll specifically focused on the household level, aiming to understand what practical actions people are willing to take and how the government should assist people in participating in the net-zero transition through policies. Therefore, the questionnaire design focused on household climate actions for county and city mayoral candidates, including "replacing gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles, promoting home electrification, energy-saving appliances, installing rooftop solar power and energy storage, and subsidies for green buildings" related to climate change adaptation.
Huang Yeh-tang pointed out that the survey results show that the public generally holds a positive attitude towards household electrification measures, including replacing vehicles with electric ones, IH stoves, heat pump water heaters, and energy-saving equipment. Among these, 46% of people believe that IH stoves do not increase indoor temperature when cooking, which is an important reason for switching to energy-saving appliances.
Furthermore, Huang Yeh-tang stated that most people believe that energy-saving electrical equipment is more expensive, but after long-term use, energy expenses are actually lower. Therefore, he suggests that the government refer to overseas practices where the government or power companies first help people bear the equipment costs, and then gradually recover the investment through the saved energy costs, thereby lowering the threshold for public transition.
Xu Huang-hsiung, a distinguished research fellow at the former Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, stated in an interview that this local election has largely focused on issues such as Taiwan's AI development and the restart of nuclear power. However, he believes that society should prudently evaluate the costs, time, and risks of various energy choices, and also consider whether the invested resources are consistent with the power generation efficiency. He said: "(Original sound) Nuclear power plants are not like an old car that can be put back on the road by replacing a part. If you need to replace many old parts, can you buy the parts? How much time and money will this whole process take? But in the end, it can only generate 6GW. In the next few years, it might cost hundreds of billions or even trillions. With this time and money, we should significantly expand our renewable energy and energy storage facilities."
Hsu Huang-hsiung emphasized that the global carbon reduction progress is not as expected, so Taiwan must simultaneously accelerate its pace of carbon reduction and adaptation. He believes that in addition to continuing to promote carbon reduction, Taiwan must also accelerate investment in climate adaptation work to reduce the impact of extreme weather such as high temperatures and heavy rainfall on people's lives. He also hopes that candidates in the year-end local elections will propose corresponding policies.
This survey was conducted from October 2024 to February 2025, targeting Taiwanese residents aged 20 and above, through online questionnaires via the "Online Survey Member Database" of the Survey Research Data Center, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Center, Academia Sinica. A total of 5,524 valid samples were collected. The survey results were analyzed using Multilevel Regression and Post-stratification (MRP), combined with data on population structure, education level, income, energy use, and past election results for each township, town, and district to make estimations.
Source Link: https://www.rti.org.tw/news?uid=3&pid=215851
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