A booming green business for Taiwan's climate perspective

Under the UNFCCC, governments have adopted a universal climate change agreement, the Paris Agreement, near the end of 2015 covering nearly all countries from 2020, and will endeavor to find ways to scale up efforts before 2020 beyond the existing pledges to curb emissions, so that the world can stay below the agreed maximum 2 degrees C temperature rise. In view of long-term planning strategy, many countries have adopted the year 2050 goals, and science strongly indicates that any further delay in appropriate global mitigation efforts will increase the pressure towards our low-carbon future. This paper discussed the multiple challenges and searches for the optimal pathways in promoting the transformation of future renewable energy systems in Taiwan, especially its practical implementation aspects. While developing Taiwan's climate legislation and strategies, in addition to having the participation of both the public and private sectors in order to act aggressively to overcome policy obstacles, active dialogues with the stakeholders and the general public were also promoted which helped to improve public awareness and build up consensus. The end result is the promulgation of the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act which stipulates Taiwan's short and long term climate goals and development of corresponding measures, and the formulation of Taiwan's Nationally Determined Contribution which serves to foster a facilitative environment and create tremendous business opportunities for the booming green industry in Taiwan. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.