1. Assist in Implementation and Evaluation of the Low-carbon Island Program
Promote the 2016 local low-carbon and sustainable action plans and objectives and carry out the control procedures on the relevant Low-carbon Island plans that are implemented by Kinmen County government; track the implementation results of promoting relevant low-carbon work in Kinmen County. Statistics showed that, up to November 30, 2016, 5 plans were completed, 27 plans met the schedule for work progress, and 5 plans have fallen behind schedule.In addition,assist in the “Meeting of the Promotion Committee for Kinmen Low-carbon Island” convened on a quarterly basis by the Kinmen County Government and Environmental Protection Administration, respectively.
2. Establish Low-carbon Communities and Counsel the Rating Certification
(1)Hold a session of the “Seminar for Kinmen County Low-carbon Sustainable Homeland Certification and Rating System” for the communities, while also implementing the “Houheng Community, Xiyuan Village, Jinsha Township” and “Qionglin Community, Qionglin Village, Jinhu Township” as the core low-carbon demonstration communities, with total seven action items completed according to the characteristics of communities , to become the demonstration sites for the creation of low-carbon communities, force to expand promotion on practical experiences, or to promote them to the surrounding communities.
(2)Counsel the 18 communities around the core communities which at least meet the entry requirements (including the Low Carbon Exhibition Hall), with a total of 35 action items being promoted, and also help three villages (Guanyu Village, Wensha Village, Xinhu Village) meet the entry requirements.The amount of the total carbon reduction and sequestration are estimated 24.048.33 kgCO2/year.
(3)Counsel two townships (Jinhu Township and Jincheng Township) as well as three villages (Xiyuan Village, Guanyu Village, Liaoluo Village) at the community level on obtaining the bronze-level certification, and achieving the goal of becoming the bronze-level county for Kinmen.
(4)Research the proposal of six more low-carbon and sustainable action items for conversion from achievements of implementation to certification projects, and publish them on the “Low Carbon Sustainable Information System”.
3. Implement Vegetation and Greenification Plans for Public Buildings
Counsel three public buildings designated by the authorities to implement green roofs or green walls such as Low Carbon Exhibition Hall at Environmental Park etc., with a total vegetation covering an area of 278.5 square meters, and the total carbon sequestration rate is approximately 3,250.52 kgCO2/year; In addition, research the proposal for conversion from implementation of such action item to a certification project.
4. Implement the Composite Action Item Plans with Cause-effect Relation or Multiplier Effect.
(1)Counsel the certified bronze-level Zhushan community, Zhusha Village on promoting low carbon and sustainable travel. Based on the local culture characteristics, a complete low-carbon guided route has been designed as a tour package; a total of 2,000 copies of folding brochures on low carbon and sustainable travel map have been made and distributed at Kinmen Airport, Shuitou Dock and all the sightseeing spots.
(2)Prepare environmental teaching plans with low carbon sustainability and local characteristics, and conduct volunteer trainings for low carbon and sustainability, in which the training program is divided into six sessions for a total of 24 hours; a total of 32 people applied to participate.
(3)Counsel the Zhushan community on making the main theme lanterns and environmentally friendly lanterns to be integrated with the community’s low-carbon and sustainable tourism activities for the Lantern Festival themed with “Reuse of Environmentally Friendly Materials”, which allows the environmentally friendly art pieces created by the community to be displayed in a normal manner at a fixed space and research the proposal for conversion from implementation of such action item to a certification project.
5. Promotion and Administrative Management Procedures
(1)Conduct two sessions of the “Low-carbon Community Life Intelligent Camp for Young Delegates in Environmental Protection” with a total of 80 people to participate in the activities; enhance young students’ learning interests in energy saving and carbon reduction.
(2)A brief introduction report on the opening of Low Carbon Exhibition Hall at Environmental Park as the promotion focus was published in the CommonWealth Magazine editorial coverage.
(3)Collect and analyze the statuses of greenhouse gases emissions during 2012~2014 in Kinmen County. In 2014, the greenhouse gas emissions were 367,258 tons of CO2e and per capita emissions were 2.88 tons of CO2e per year. Among the research, the emissions from the Energy - Residential and Commercial Sectors accounted for over 50% was the primary target for emission reduction.
(4)Register the modified administrative area inventory data from 2012~2014 on the “Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Carbon Disclosure of Cities Service Platform System for Cities” to provide the Central Government with a new guidance for inspecting the 2012~2014 greenhouse gas emissions inventory results for all county departments.
6. Recommendations
(1)The counselling work in low carbon communities for next year could focus more on assisting those communities that have met the entry requirements or obtained bronze-level certifications in upgrading to the bronze / silver level, and counsel the communities with potential for the silver / bronze level to gain the silver- / bronze-level certifications to achieve the performance goals for 2017 of the Environmental Protection Administration, and the goal of silver level for Kinmen County, and continuously reproduce and promote experiences in the implementation of the low-carbon and sustainable action items for the current year to other communities.
(2)In the future, when counseling the communities to implement low carbon and sustainable action items, it is suggested inspecting problems of each community, related grants and development potential for low carbon for bureaus or divisions before requesting for financial support from all bureaus and divisions of business management for construction, in order to effectively integrate more resources and strengthen the momentum for improvement.
(3)Public buildings in the county can be evaluated to promote the demonstration projects for low carbon and energy saving reformation in priority, launch the relevant diagnoses and counselling on power saving, and submit specific proposals for power saving, then perform the relevant improvements related to power saving and carbon reduction in accordance with the counselling results.
(4)It is suggested working with other authorities (e.g., the Tourism Division) to research the proposal for a series of low-carbon activities to promote sightseeing in low carbon communities, strengthen marketing force for low-carbon tourism and community development, and launch distinctive low-carbon journeys.
