Towards a democratic and just energy transition: A new wave of environmental activism in Taiwan

This presentation explores a new wave of environmental activism in Taiwan. Emerging from the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movement, activists shifted their focus after successfully halting the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in 2014. 

Many redirected their efforts toward promoting renewable energy and influencing energy policy. Advocacy for energy democracy has been pursued either through participation in energy governance or by becoming energy prosumers—initiating community-based power plants, citizens’ energy cooperatives, or social enterprises. As the development of large scale renewable energy provoked new social and ecological conflicts, the activists are seeking for new mechanisms to ease them. More recently, with rising global concern over climate change, Taiwan transitioned its policy focus from 2025 goals (e.g., 20% renewables, Nuclear-Free Homeland) to a broader 2050 Net-Zero Transition. 

Environmental groups have seized this momentum to promote a just energy transition centered on distributive, procedural, recognition, and community empowerment. However, the questions about how to achieve a democratic and just energy transition continue to pose challenges. In particular, such a transition may take time and lead to only slow progress in the development of renewable energy. 

Setbacks in the development of renewable energy have given pro-nuclear groups the opportunity to call for a return to nuclear power as a solution to air pollution and carbon reduction pressures. In the context of geopolitical tensions under the threat from China, energy security has become even more important than the pursuit of a democratic and just energy transition. 

These complex issues have led energy transition advocates in Taiwan to sometimes adopt a pragmatic stance, offering little dissent to a government-led green growth policy that emphasises technology- and market-oriented solutions. In Taiwan’s specific development context, realising a democratic and just energy transition remains a challenge.

Speaker

Hua-Mei Chiu is an associate Professor of Sociology at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Specializing in environmental sociology, she employs the frameworks of environmental and energy justice to examine conflicts within Taiwan’s electronics, petrochemical, and energy industries.