David on Formosa

The theme of the January 2008 edition of Taiwan Review is environment.

An article about the Kaohsiung City Government's efforts to tackle climate change notes that Kaohsiung annually emits nearly 35 tonnes of CO2 per capita. This is more than three times the average for Taiwan and puts Kaohsiung among the top three cities for greenhouse emissions in the world. This is mainly due to the concentration of industry in the city. Once the contribution of industry is removed the per capita emissions are a more reasonable seven tonnes per capita. Kaohsiung City has set quite modest targets for emissions reductions, but I think it is good that at least they have some policies in place and are building the institutional capacity to deal with climate change. The article notes that local governments may be better able to deal with climate change issues than national governments.

There are a couple more articles on climate change in the magazine. It is certainly worth a read.