TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s circumstances are similar to Japan’s and South Korea’s and the country’s carbon targets will “not be a castle in the sky,” the head of Taiwan’s National Development Council Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) told CNA in an exclusive interview.

The council recently released a 2050 zero-carbon plan, which was criticized as setting targets without a clear roadmap of how to reach them, per a CNA report. Kung said the council will release energy distribution and carbon reduction targets for 2030 at the end of this year.

According to the 2050 plan, between 60-70% of Taiwan’s total energy grid will be powered by sustainable sources. At the moment, sustainable energy only makes up 6-7% of the total power, meaning a tenfold increase is due in less than 30 years.

To achieve this radical increase, disruptive steps may need to be taken, which will likely trigger a backlash from the private sector or the public, per CNA. “This is what most countries go through,” says Kung, citing South Korea and Japan as examples.

According to Kung, in 2019, only 7% of South Korea’s grid was powered by sustainable energy, and it hopes to hit 21% by 2030, and between 61% and 71% by mid-century. Japan’s situation is better than South Korea’s and Taiwan’s, he added, and in 2019, sustainable energy represented 18% of its power. By 2030, it aims for 38% and then between 50-60% by 2050.