Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement in the run up to the 2021 Nuclear Power Station Referendum: A discussion with Environmental NGO Researcher Wei Yang and environmental scholar Simona Grano

Wei Yang, Simona Grano

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Abstract

Following the mothballing of the Fourth Nuclear Power Station in 2014 and the election victory of the anti-nuclear Democratic Progressive Party in 2016, it looked like Taiwan was on the road to becoming a nuclear free country. However, the picture has become more complicated following the rise of a pro-nuclear movement over the last few years. Following their success in passing a 2018 referendum that cancelled the article in the Electricity Act on Taiwan’s target of becoming nuclear free by 2025, the pro-nuclear groups are preparing for a national referendum in the summer of 2021 demanding the Fourth Nuclear Power Station is put into operation. In this interactive session with Wei Yang and Simona Grano, we will discuss the state of Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement in the run up to the referendum.

Speakers' Bios

Wei Yang studied Sociology as a MSc student in the University of Oxford and is currently working as a research fellow in the Green Citizen’s Action Alliance. After graduating from Oxford, Wei has participated in the campaign against two pro-nuclear referendums in 2018 and 2021. Wei is also an initiator for sustainable energy transition in Taiwan.

Simona A. Grano is Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich and Director of the Taiwan Studies Project at UZH and joined the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies as a Research Associate in 2021. Simona is the author of Environmental Governance in Taiwan: a new generation of activists and stakeholders, which has been published in 2015 by Routledge. In it, she analyses environmental governance mechanisms and actors in Taiwan through a multi-disciplinary research approach. Based on extensive and original research, the book includes four different case studies (among these the anti-nuclear protests generated by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Taiwan), which have all taken place since 2011.

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: jl91@soas.ac.uk