ENGLAND / TAIWAN – British Office Taipei and Bureau of Energy, ministry of economic affairs co-hosted the third UK-Taiwan Energy Dialogue online to discuss the carbon reduction and offshore wind policy on 6 July.
The dialogue was chaired by Julie Scott, head of energy diplomacy of department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and YU Cheng-Wei, director general of Bureau of Energy (BOE).
The participants have reached the consensus to cooperate on UK-Taiwan carbon reduction pathway in energy sector, as well as to co-organise a series of energy innovation workshop focusing on floating offshore wind, hydrogen and CCUS technologies.
At the end of the session, a MoU was signed between Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult) and Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) on offshore wind innovation project and information exchange, which create a new chapter of the cooperation between UK and Taiwan on renewable energy.
Julie Scott, head of energy diplomacy of BEIS, said: “I was glad to have the opportunity to co-chair the third UK-Taiwan energy dialogue with director-general YU Cheng-Wei of Bureau of Energy, and welcomed the agreement to deepen our collaboration. I welcomed hearing about Taiwan’s ambitious approach to achieving emissions reductions. We all have a responsibility to protect our planet. By working closely, sharing experience and expertise, we can better identify the right mix of policy solutions and new technologies to drive the zero-carbon energy transition.”
YU Cheng-Wei, director general of Bureau of Energy, said: “Being a member of global community and also to echo global climate action, Taiwan has set concrete energy transition targets and implemented numbers of plans and policies. The key of our energy transition target is to increase the renewable energy to 20 percent by the year 2025. To achieve this target, developing offshore wind power is one of our important policies. UK and Taiwan can continue to deepen the exchange and technology cooperation, which will create a multi-win industrial development.
Participants discussed the preliminary modelling result from Taiwan’s 2050 Net Zero Pathway, a joint project between British Office Taipei and environmental protection administration. The project found that like many other economies in the world, Taiwan needs to decarbonise the power sector as much as possible to reach net zero. There are quite a few innovation areas the UK and Taiwan could work together to accelerate the green energy industries and carbon reduction process, such as offshore wind, CCS, low carbon manufacturing, and biomass.
UK’s department for international trade also shared how the UK encouraged government-industry collaboration through the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal. UK is pleased to see gradually increasing flexibilities in Taiwan industrial relevance program, which enables further UK-Taiwan collaboration in offshore wind industry.
Andrew Pittam, deputy representative of the British Office Taipei, said: “I am delighted to participate in the third UK-Taiwan Energy Dialogue where we have had really positive discussions on both emissions reduction cooperation and offshore wind. There are now 30 UK businesses set up in Taiwan to support the development of Taiwan’s offshore wind sector as it rightly aims to become a hub for the region. It was clear from the dialogue and the signing of the MOU between the UK’s ORE Catapult and Taiwan’s ITRI that there is a real appetite on both sides to deepen this collaboration via further research and innovation in the coming months.”
Separately, UK also shared the experience of incorporating port development policy into its energy policy. There are different commercial strategies and infrastructures of UK ports to accommodate the development of offshore wind sector in the UK.
Meanwhile, sufficient government coordination and funding to improve port conditions, as well as open market mechanism and positive competition with European ports, make UK ports more internationally competitive.
