Net Zero Technology
In 2021, President Tsai announced the 2050 Net Zero emissions. Achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is a global trend and a national objective for Taiwan. It has been included in the "Climate Change Response Act", and is a large-scale transformation project that spans generations, sectors, and countries, which is both a challenge and an opportunity for us. "Technology" will even become an important driver of the four major transformations of society, industry, life, and energy in the net-zero process, assisting the effective use of energy and resources, and reducing people's livelihood through smartness and sharing economy demand, use technology to improve energy supply efficiency and reduce the impact during the adjustment process.
According to the analysis by the International Energy Agency, current technology could only assist in achieving the carbon reduction target before 2030. By 2050, about half of the carbon reduction will require more forward-looking technology to be implemented. Hence, in March 2022, the government published Taiwan's Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050, which identified five main domains for the development of net-zero-related science and technology, focusing on the expansion and promotion of existing mature technologies and accelerating the research and development of demonstration technologies in the short and medium term, and the development of forward-looking technologies in the long term to provide technologies needed for transformation in all aspects. The Executive Yuan also approved the "Net Zero Technology Plan (Phase 1 2023-2026)" in March 2023, planning to invest at least 15 billion TWD per year to focus on the construction of the net zero technology infrastructure required to achieve Taiwan's goals in 2030 net zero policy. It will accelerate the implementation of technology applications and the introduction of forward-looking technology research and development through the integration and promotion of the following five major domains.
1. Sustainable and forward-looking energy: Invest in forward-looking energy research (e.g., deep geothermal, decarbonized hydrogen combustion, magnetically confined high-temperature plasma) to maximize the supply of renewable energy and deploy energy storage and power grid system integration technologies, and invest in the development and research of key hydrogen energy infrastructure.
2. Low carbon and carbon reduction: Accelerate carbon reduction in high-carbon emitting industries (e.g., steel, petrochemical, electronics, and construction industries), reduce carbon emissions produced during transportation and deploy vehicle decarbonization technologies (e.g., electric vehicles and heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell vehicles), and reduce industrial petrochemical energy use and introduce hydrogen energy applications.
3. Carbon negative: Develop carbon capture and reuse, carbon storage and natural carbon sink, and other carbon-negative technologies./p>
4. Circular economy: Raise resource reuse rate and develop technologies to facilitate energy resource recycling and associated verification mechanisms.
5. Humanities and social sciences: Invest in foundational research and demonstration of the four transformation adjustments of society, industry, life, and energy, as well as social economy, as a reference for decision-making and the basis for social communication. And promote the "Net Zero New Life Movement" to spread the concept of net zero and establish an independent private investment mechanism to expand private participation in the net-zero transformation.
Innovative breakthroughs in science and technology are key to Taiwan achieving its 2050 net-zero emissions target. The net-zero technology plan will integrate inter-ministerial resources and expand private and industrial participation to implement relevant research, development and implementation, and build Taiwan into a paradigm for net-zero technology.