ABSTRACT
In recent years, global warming and climate change have seen humanity increasingly experience a dramatic collapse in the environment, economy, society, and survival, forcing the nations of the world to begin to transition from the current economic society with its highly catastrophic use of resources, energy intense, high carbon and pollution emissions (WBGU 2011). Like the rest of the world, Taiwan is simultaneously facing extensive, large-scale, multi-faceted climate change threats along with significant challenges to the economy in the transition domestically to an environmentally sustainable, social democracy. That is to say, under vertical pressure from international climate change risk and green conventions, along with horizontal pressure from society demanding the sublation of high energy consumption and industries with high levels of pollution and transition to an economy which would be more environmentally sustainable. And such a move is occurring in places all around the world; making it not just an issue of cosmopolitan governance (Beck 2006, 2010, 2015), but more of cosmopolitan risk governance (Chou 2015a), and this is happening in places around the globe including Taiwan.
