The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of the Executive Yuan announced that the environmental protection authorities of Taiwan’s municipalities, directly under the Central Government, promoted a performance assessment in 2016 on actions taken to help climate change. Yunlin County was awarded second place in its performance in tackling climate change.
EPD Director Lin Zhangzao said, low-carbon sustainability has always been the focus of the County’s climate change project. In 2016, Yunlin performed exceptionally well in the EPD assessment, affirming the Central Government to believe in the county’s ability to affect climate change positively and adapt to green energy implementations.
In addition, the county government is also actively promoting the Yunlin County Smart Energy-saving projects. For example, installing solar heating water systems and mercury-vapor street lamps. These projects resulted in a total reduction of 46,517.2 metric tons of CO2e (equivalent carbon dioxide) across Yunlin County. In order to reduce the impact on the climate caused by global warming, there are projects designed to create emergency response communities for floods in flood-prone regions in Yunlin.
Alternatively, plans were introduced to convince people to incorporate energy saving/carbon-reducing habits into their daily lives. With guidance from the EPD, local communities are encouraged to participate in the EPD’s low-carbon community for counselling. In 2016, the participation rate increased by 23%, and 13 new communities were accredited by the EPD low-carbon community.
In 2016, the county government has set up a “Green Energy Project Promotion Office”, in collaboration with the Green Energy Policy of the Central Government. The office will be the platform at which the county can continually promote the vision, goals and strategies of green energy into the foreseeable future. Actively pushing the county towards becoming the “Agriculture and Green Energy” capital of Taiwan.