Dear Reader,
I’m writing this before I’ve even packed. Consider it the first entry in a series I’m calling Letters from Taipei, a diary of a South African-British politics student trying to do her year abroad properly. Starting with the carbon I haven’t produced yet.
There’s a strange guilt in booking a flight to the other side of the world for the sake of an education that’s meant to make me more globally conscious. A London-Taipei route emits roughly half a tonne of CO2 per passenger, not nothing, and not something I’ll pretend away. So before I board, I’m offsetting the flight through a verified scheme, and I’m packing light: one suitcase, capsule wardrobe, no “just in case” items. Less weight, less fuel, less waste to bring home unused.
But here’s what changes the moment I land: Taiwan isn’t asking me to be sustainable in spite of the infrastructure. It’s built to make it easy. Taipei has pushed its green transport share to 63%, aiming for 70% by 2030. With a mix of MRT, electrified buses, and YouBike, the city’s public bike-share scheme has now clocked over 100 million rides. That’s SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, not as a slogan but as a functioning metro system that I’ll be riding daily instead of hailing scooters or taxis.
It ties into SDG 13, Climate Action as well, Taipei’s “carbon reduction account,” linking public transport use to measurable emissions savings across the city, has already logged 40,000 metric tonnes reduced. And SDG 12, Responsible Consumption, shows up in something smaller but harder: the city’s “No Trash Left on the Ground” policy which has pushed recycling rates to 67% through nothing more than shared civic habit. If a city that dense can normalise that, so can I.
So here’s what I’m actually doing, not just intending. Getting an EasyCard on day one so MRT, bus, and YouBike become my default, not the exception. Carrying a refill bottle instead of buying water in a country whose air quality I’ll be tracking anyway. And writing this letter and the ones after it, so the SOAS students who come after me don’t have to relearn any of this from scratch. Knowledge shared is the only kind that scales.
Five things I’ll be leaning on and pass on to you:
YouBike app: real time bike availability across Taipei’s stations
Taipei Metro (TRTC) app: MRT routes, fares, and EasyCard top ups
Taiwan Air Quality Index (EPA) app: real time AQI to plan low pollution days
data.gov.tw open data platform: Taiwan’s public environmental and transport data
UN SDGs official site (sdgs.un.org): the framework I’m holding myself to
More letters to come. Next one’s from the ground.
