Will There Be Increased Discussion of Climate Resilience in Taiwan?

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Photo Credit: Tianmu peter/WikiCommons/CC BY 3.0

A RECENT ARTICLE in the New York Times ranked Taipei lowest out of the 72 cities that it assessed in terms of climate preparedness. In the wake of the article, the two Taipei mayoral candidates–Puma Shen of the DPP and Chiang Wan-an of the KMT–have traded barbs on what it would take to make Taipei more prepared. Chiang largely attempted to play up the accomplishments of his mayoral administration to date, while Shen has called for proactive measures.

Indeed, there has not been much discussion to date of climate preparedness in Taiwan. The particularities of the Taiwanese political context have led much discussion about environmentalism to be confined to discussing Taiwan’s energy mix, with the issue of nuclear energy remaining contentious.

The issue of nuclear waste storage has long been controversial, in that Taiwan has a limited land mass, as a result of which local communities end up being foisted with nuclear waste storage facilities. The impact of the 2011 Tohoku typhoon and tsunami led to increased consideration in Taiwan of what could occur if there were a catastrophic tsunami or earthquake, such as led to the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor.

On the other hand, discussion of the suitability or unsuitability of Taiwan for nuclear energy has largely cleaved along partisan lines in past decades. In more recent times, however, the DPP has reversed course on nuclear energy, not only because of the prevalent view from abroad that Taiwan needs nuclear energy in order to continue to fuel the AI boom, but because of concerns about Taiwan’s energy supply being cut off in the event of an invasion.

Otherwise, one has seen city governments roll out heat maps for the summer, when elderly individuals are particularly vulnerable to the effects of high temperatures. But rising temperatures in Taiwan have failed to be linked back to global climate change. And if in past years, central and southern Taiwan have seen water rationing due to droughts, with less typhoons hitting Taiwan annually, this has also failed to be connected back to issues of climate change.

As Taiwan is an island, Taiwan is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels. Although Taiwan has offered aid to Pacific allies that are in danger from rising sea levels, there has been less discussion of how Taiwan itself would be impacted.

If there is discussion of the impact of the climate on Taiwan in the Taipei mayoral race, in context of the New York Times article, this may be a welcome development.

Nevertheless, one notes that efforts by Taiwan to shore up resilience for invasion scenarios have often been framed as providing resilience in the event of natural disasters. It may be worth contemplating as to whether resilience could also be framed in terms of climate disasters.