The European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT) and Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) are jointly participating in Earth Hour on 23 March as part of ongoing actions to raise awareness of and promote sustainability. The ECCT’s Low Carbon Initiative is calling upon its members to actively participate in Earth Hour by turning off the lights, thereby encouraging energy conservation and contributing to climate change mitigation and efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Numerous ECCT members, including Bayer Taiwan, Hua Nan Bank, KPMG Taiwan, Merck, Schneider Electric ,and SRE, have already announced their plans to mark Earth Hour. This is in addition to ongoing efforts by all ECCT members to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, develop and implement low carbon technologies and solutions.  

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wildlife Fund. The event is held annually, encouraging individuals, communities and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour from 20:30 to 21:30, usually on the last Saturday of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. According to the WWF, last year, over 410,000 hours were given back to the planet by supporters in over 190 countries and territories. This year, the aim is to make Earth Hour the biggest ever.

Marking Earth Hour is the latest joint initiative of the ECCT and Taipower. Last year, the ECCT and Taipower jointly released the “Paving the Way to Net-Zero Power Report”. The report offers proposals and showcases innovative solutions aimed at achieving net zero power. The publication highlights innovative renewable energy and circular economy solutions showcased at a series of workshops jointly organised by the Taipower Research Institute (TPRI) and ECCT’s Low Carbon initiative (LCI) since April 2021 as well as in individual chapters submitted by representatives from the European Union and ECCT member companies.

In addition to coverage of the LCI-TPRI workshops, the report included chapters from ECCT members on the topics of geothermal energy (Baseload Power), onshore wind energy (Enercon), floating wind energy (National Taiwan University), floating offshore wind certification (Bureau Veritas), insights on hydrogen development (TÜV Rheinland Taiwan), the hydrogen value chain (Bosch), the hydrogen economy (YARA Environmental Technologies), clean fuel of the future (Atlas Copco), decarbonising the semiconductor supply chain (Schneider Electric), energy savings (ABB), strategy for embodied carbon reduction (RCI Engineering), energy efficient lighting (Signify) and EVs for logistics (Gaius). 

歐洲商會與台電 攜手響應「Earth Hour 地球一小時」

歐洲在臺商務協會（ECCT）與台灣電力公司將攜手響應3月23日的「Earth Hour 地球一小時」活動，希望藉此提高民眾對永續 (sustainability)的意識並推廣永續發展。歐洲商會低碳倡議行動（ECCT-LCI）也呼籲會員積極參與此次活動，關閉照明設施促進節能，努力實現2050淨零排放的目標。已有眾多歐洲商會成員如台灣拜耳、華南銀行、KPMG安侯建業聯合會計師事務所、默克、施耐德電機和風睿能源，宣布將參與地球一小時的計劃。這也是所有歐洲商會成員持續努力減少溫室氣體排放、開發和實施低碳技術和解決方案的表率。

「Earth Hour 地球一小時」是由世界自然基金會（WWF）組織的全球運動，該活動每年舉辦一次，鼓勵個人、社區和企業在三月的最後一個週六，當地晚間8:30至9:30，一起關閉「不必要的電燈及耗電產品」，象徵對地球的承諾。根據WWF的數據，去年有超過190個國家和地區的支持者參與，共節省了超過410,000小時的能源。今年的目標是讓「Earth Hour 地球一小時」達到史無前例的規模。

響應「Earth Hour 地球一小時」是歐洲商會與台電的最新共同倡議行動。而在去年，歐洲商會和台電共同發布了《電力淨零路徑報告書》，該報告提供了實現淨零能源目標的建議，以及展示創新的解決方案。另外，此報告也介紹了台電綜合研究所（TPRI）與歐洲商會低碳倡議行動（ECCT-LCI），自2021年4月以來，共同舉辦的一系列研討會內容中，展示創新可再生能源和循環經濟解決方案，以及來自歐盟代表和歐洲商會會員公司代表提交的建言。

報告中除了涵蓋歐洲商會低碳倡議行動（ECCT-LCI）及台電綜合研究所（TPRI）研討會涵蓋多個主題外，包含了來自歐洲商會會員在地熱（Baseload Power）、陸域風電（Enercon）、浮離式離岸風電（國立台灣大學工學院）、浮動離岸風電認證（Bureau Veritas）、氫能發展見解（TÜV Rheinland Taiwan）、氫能價值鏈（Bosch）、氫經濟（YARA Environmental Technologies）、未來清潔燃料（Atlas Copco）、半導體供應鏈脫碳（Schneider Electric）、能源節約（ABB）、實現碳減排的策略（RCI Engineering）、效能照明（Signify）和物流電動車（Gaius）等主題章節。歐洲商會將持續與會員攜手合作，透過各式各樣的活動，努力守護地球。