Embracing a green future through realizing Taiwan’s 2050 net-zero transformation

Changes in human activities and the pursuit of rapid industrialization have resulted in excessive greenhouse gas emissions. This has caused the greenhouse effect to gradually worsen in severity, with global warming and climate change now viewed as urgent and challenging climate crises. Over the past several decades, the effects of global warming, such as rising sea levels, extreme weather phenomena, and desertification, have caused severe damage to ecosystems, water and soil resources, and the safety of human life. The issue of extreme weather has attracted a great deal of international attention. The United Nations Climate Change Conference has called on all countries to take aggressive action to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, so as to limit the global temperature rise to <1.5°C. As a result, many countries have set net-zero emissions as a national development goal (e.g., the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution and Japan’s Green Growth Strategy Toward 2050 Carbon Neutrality), and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is a global policy trend. As a member of the “global village,” Taiwan, along with several other countries, announced transformation to net-zero emissions by 2050 as its key development goal on Earth Day, April 22, 2021, and formulated a critical strategic plan to promote actions that can help to achieve this goal.

National Taiwan University (NTU) promotes net-zero carbon emissions and imbues net-zero development efforts with academic strength

Scientific research is required to provide evidence and support for formulating policies and regulations. In order to assist Taiwan’s agricultural industry in achieving net-zero carbon emission policy goals, the NTU College of Bioresources and Agriculture has integrated funding from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Science and Technology Council to establish the Agricultural Net-Zero Carbon Technology and Management Innovation Research Center (ANZC), based on NTU’s existing research institutes and experimental forests in the fields of ecology, biology, and agriculture. The four major strategies of ANZC are reducing carbon emissions, enhancing carbon sinks, promoting circular agriculture, and embracing the green trend, which is used to develop agricultural zero carbon technologies and innovative management methods. ANZC utilizes the academic strength of NTU in industry, government, academia, and research sectors to provide solid scientific evidence for the formulation and execution of agricultural zero carbon strategies.

The key areas of research at the ANZC include commitment to integrated carbon-negative farming systems, innovative carbon-negative technologies and management strategies for forests, innovative net-zero technologies and management strategies for animal husbandry, smart monitoring of carbon budgets in the agricultural environment, and strategies for a carbon credit exchange system and carbon sink management. In order to conduct research, the ANZC integrates the work of various departments at NTU (e.g., the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, the Department of Agronomy, the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, and the Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering) and external academic institutions (e.g., Academia Sinica). The ANZC also comprises professionals from a variety of fields who work to actively develop cutting-edge technologies, promoting interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to achieve the goals of reduced carbon emissions and enhanced agricultural carbon sinks.

NTU Experimental Farm, Ankang Branch: Soil carbon reduction and enhanced carbon sink experiments

The ANZC has established the Experimental Farm, Ankang Branch, associated with the College of Bioresources and Agriculture, to conduct experiments involving the reduction of paddy field soil greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced carbon sink. An automatic water level monitoring system is used to control the irrigation water volume, and a multi-channel continuous soil greenhouse gas monitoring system is used to continuously measure soil greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) emission data and establish a localized carbon emission coefficient. Soil, water, and gas samples collected from the farm are sent to the Biotechnology Center for analysis using various analytical instruments (e.g., gas chromatography/mass spectrometer and elemental analyzers). Specialized instruments enable further understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon content of the soil in rice fields. Researchers can examine changes in soil carbon emissions and carbon sinks under different cultivation and management models by utilizing different measures to manage moisture content and fertilizer use. Such experiments will facilitate the establishment of methodologies for soil carbon sink and soil carbon emissions, as well as the development of high-efficiency, low-energy consumption, and zero carbon agricultural production models to help Taiwan achieve its goal of agricultural net-zero emissions.

NTU Comprehensive Smart Greenhouse: Combining interdisciplinary technologies to drive the development of smart agriculture

In addition to the Ankang farm branch, the ANZC-established smart greenhouse uses an automated system and a variety of high-tech equipment and technology to control the dynamic data within the greenhouse to achieve precise and automated cultivation of cantaloupes to research the circular economy of agriculture and to promote sustainable agricultural development. The smart greenhouse is equipped with the following:

• Solar Power System: The solar power system utilizes sunlight to provide a partial electricity supply to the greenhouse, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
• Smart Skylight: The system can be controlled by setting an automatic schedule or operated manually. When the temperature is too high, the system can rapidly discharge hot air from within the greenhouse, and the installed automatic water curtain and negative-pressure electric fans are used for cooling. This prevents crop growth from being negatively affected by heat stress.
• Dynamic Crop Cultivation Calendar: The research team uses the dynamic crop cultivation calendar as a management model for crop growth and precise cultivation through real-time data collection and dynamic adjustments.
• Drone Cruise Crop Positioning: Cantaloupe monitoring is achieved by designating a set path for the drone to follow, using the drone to photograph crop growth automatically along this route, measuring the spatial location of crops, and submitting this data to a monitoring platform in real-time.
• Robotic Arms: The arms are used to measure plant height, internode distance, and number of internodes. Using this data, 3D image reconstruction of crops allows staff to understand the actual growth status of plants and helps in the precise application of fertilizer.
• Nutrient Solution Circulating System: Conserves water and fertilizer and monitors the status of plant nutrient absorption.
• Artificial Intelligence Crop Disease Identification: Allows the researcher to quickly identify diseases and protect crops.
• The Queen-free Beehive Pollination System: Ensures efficient pollination to achieve higher yields.

It is hoped that the above technologies can be utilized in future smart agricultural methods to achieve technology-assisted high yields and high economic value agricultural production goals with less manpower.

ANZC talent training strategies

Since the establishment of net-zero emissions as a key developmental goal in many countries, in addition to reducing carbon emissions and enhancing carbon sinks, many other carbon-related systems have been slowly established internationally, such as carbon tax, fee, and exchange. Therefore, in addition to training talents in crop science, agronomy, and soil science, talent development programs focused on agricultural engineering, agricultural economics, and agricultural law have also become key to training specialists. In order to train specialists in the agricultural environment, ANZC provides students with opportunities to participate in research programs and academic exchanges in Taiwan and abroad. Industrial-academic collaborations with manufacturing companies also provide students with experiences to learn from industry professionals and encourage industry personnel to further their studies. At the same time, through scholarships, basic training, and the provision of research topics, students can obtain sound professional knowledge regarding reducing agricultural carbon emissions and enhancing carbon sinks, along with training in carbon emission measurement, inventory, and inspection techniques.

ANZC-related collaboration experience

In addition to establishing interdisciplinary collaborations between university faculty from various professional fields (e.g., soil environment, microbiology, engineering, and humanities) and integrating resources from different research institutes, the ANZC is currently implementing projects for the National Science and Technology Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Education, in addition to conducting industrial-academic collaborations with Taiwanese companies (e.g., Innolux Corporation and Nestlé Taiwan). Besides being supported in securing funding, ANZC students can interact with industry professionals and gain practical experience beyond the classroom. In order to internationalize Taiwan’s agricultural industry, ANZC has also created international collaboration opportunities. Over the last few years, ANZC has signed agreements to establish joint research proposals and centers with the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment in France, Wageningen University and Research, and the University of Bordeaux. The ANZC has also discussed bilateral collaboration with Japan’s University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, the University of Tsukuba, and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. Through hosting international exchanges, the ANZC will jointly establish an integrated carbon-negative agricultural system and combine precision agriculture with organic agricultural development to enhance agricultural carbon sinks. At the same time, this will facilitate joint research and development regarding innovative solutions to the problems of agricultural emission reduction technology and maximize the possibility of achieving agricultural net-zero emissions.

Future outlook and prospects of the ANZC

Distinguished professor Yu-Pin Lin, dean of the College of Bioresources and Agriculture, has stated that promoting Taiwan's agricultural technology and academic strength to the international community and encouraging increased collaborations and exchanges with top international institutions are the primary goals of the ANZC. In the future, the ANZC hopes to export technologies used in the Center so that the highlights of Taiwan and NTU’s agricultural technology development can be showcased internationally. At the same time, in the future, periodic international workshops and seminars regarding how to achieve carbon-negative agricultural emissions can be arranged to promote the exchange of knowledge and technology internationally; a mechanism for collaboration between the areas of research and teaching can be established; more opportunities can be offered for further education and internships both in Taiwan and overseas; more interdisciplinary courses can be established; and a greater number of talents in the domain of agricultural net-zero emissions can be trained to solve the problem of insufficient talent, which exists at the current stage. The ANZC hopes to obtain more funding to optimize its high-tech hardware and equipment and recruit more international talents to conduct joint research. Most importantly, the Center hopes to provide insights into the net-zero evaluation framework and methodology for Taiwan’s 2050 net-zero goal and contribute to Taiwan’s agricultural zero carbon blueprint and the path toward its implementation.