A carbon neutral future: Can Taiwan get there?

Climate change is affecting every aspect of life, from industrial development and manufacturing to electricity use, transportation and even the food on our dinner tables.

The threat it poses has sparked urgent appeals for a transition to a net-zero emissions world, including by Microsoft founder Bill Gates in his new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” published earlier this year. Gates sized up the enormous challenge: reducing the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted every year on average to zero by 2050 to avoid a crisis.

Where do these emissions come from? According to Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a coalition of private investors founded by Gates that invests in innovative low-carbon startups around the globe, the main sources of these emissions are manufacturing (31 percent), electricity generation (27 percent), agriculture (19 percent), transportation (16 percent), and buildings (7 percent).