00:00Taiwan's AI-driven ship boom is pushing up power demand, but climate activists in Taipei are warning it could come
00:06with serious economic and health-related costs.
00:09A new report by Greenpeace and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air says pollution linked to electronics
00:15manufacturing could lead to around 90 premature deaths and $500 million in losses by 2030, among other severe impacts.
00:41Their findings come as power use from AI-chip manufacturing surged 350 percent in 2023.
00:49Electronics manufacturing now accounts for about a quarter of Taiwan's total electricity demand,
00:54which is still mainly supplied by fossil fuels, around 42 percent from oil, 29 percent from coal, and 22 percent
01:02from gas as of 2024.
01:05Renewables make up only a modest share of the mix.
01:09Demand is driven by a huge and growing global appetite for AI-chips,
01:13and the most sought-after of those are made by Taiwanese firms like TSMC, UMC, and Micron.
01:20These companies also face pressure from their customers to decarbonize.
01:24So suppliers in Taiwan, like companies like TSMC, UMC, Micron, they are selling their chips to the American customers,
01:34such as NVIDIA, Apple, Google, and those companies actually are under great pressure of carbon reduction.
01:43For example, Apple and Google said their suppliers should use 100 percent renewable by 2030.
01:50TSMC has not yet responded for comment on the new report.
01:54Researchers say setting closer renewable targets, including moving to 100 percent clean energy by 2030,
02:01could quickly cut pollution, delivering public health benefits.
02:05They're urging tech firms to find ways to offset the negative impacts of the uptick in production,
02:11as demand for AI is only expected to grow.
02:13Justin Wu and Lily Lamatina in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
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