Tainan City made the 2019 City A List of international not-for-profit charity CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), gaining international recognition for the city's 2019 efforts to become a low-carbon city, especially in mitigating and navigating climate change. CDP evaluated the carbon disclosure performances of 850 global cities in 2019 and only 105 cities (13%) were recognized as an A List city (ratings range from A to D).
Major Huang Wei-che pointed out that transitioning into a low-carbon city has always been one of Tainan's major policy objectives, since the entire world is currently faced with extreme weather threats such as global warming, forest fires, and rising sea levels. In addition to learning from other international cities, Tainan can use the CDP carbon disclosure index as reference to trace carbon emissions and monitor climate risks and play our part in fighting global warming and reducing greenhouse gases.
Tainan City Environmental Protection Bureau explained that the objective of carbon disclosure is to encourage private and public divisions to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions and reduce climate change impact factors. Participating agencies and organizations are also urged to incorporate investment risk concepts into their practices, disclose greenhouse gas data, and reduce emission volumes. Since becoming a southern Taiwan low-carbon demo city in 2010, Tainan has been actively promoting energy transition, air quality governance, and Solar City policies. Past data show that Tainan City's greenhouse gas emissions have gradually decreased over the years: the greenhouse gas emission volume per person per year fell from 14.34 ton in 2010 to 11.41 ton in 2018. This translates to a 20% decrease rate and indicates the city’s emission volume has returned close to the 2005 base year emission amount. To contribute to global sustainability, Tainan City government is assembling all divisions to collectively work on reducing carbon emissions, and will also keep on promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction policies.
Tainan has shared its experiences and results on combating climate change with the world on CDP’s website where you can also find the Cities A List 2019.