2025-08-23
Taiwanese voters headed to the voting booths today, a mere 95 days after the Legislative Yuan passed on 20 May to hold a national referendum on restarting the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant. This is the first national referendum held without a public petition, after the majority-holding Taiwan People’s Party and the Kuomintang proposed and approved it in the Legislative Yuan. The final results are in: with the number of “yes” votes failing to reach the 5 million threshold, and an overall turnout of less than 30%, the referendum did not pass. Lowest turnout in a national referendum after thresholds lowered; results unrepresentative Since major amendments to the Referendum Act in 2017 lowered the thresholds to hold referendums and kick-started a wave of nation-wide votes, the past two large-scale referendums had turnout rates of 51% and 41%, respectively. In contrast, the turn-out today failed to reach even 30%, the lowest turnout […]
2025-08-19
Having decommissioned the country’s final nuclear reactor earlier this year in May when its 40-year license expired, Taiwan will hold a national referendum on 23 August, to decide whether to restart the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant “upon approval by the competent authority and confirmation that there are no safety concerns?”
Hoping to provide Taiwanese voters with state-of-the-art scientific knowledge and latest information on global trends in the energy transition, Taiwan Climate Action Network has reached out to leading energy scholars worldwide for their views on Taiwan’s nuclear phase-out policy—especially in the context of the climate crisis, national security concerns under geopolitical tensions, and the so-called “nuclear renaissance”.
You can find their full statements below:
2024-07-12
Taiwan’s Ministry of Environment (MOENV) released its drafts for three carbon fee sub-laws in April and is expected to hold deliberation meetings in July. While the carbon fee rate deliberation committee will decide the price rate at a later date, the contents of these draft sub-laws have already affected the substantive carbon price companies will be paying, thereby limiting the role of the carbon fee as a price signal that drives companies to decarbonise. Taiwan Climate Action Network (TCAN) has thus published this policy brief to provide MOENV with suggestions on amending the three carbon fee sub-laws. We urge MOENV, relevant authorities, the industrial sector, and all stakeholders to jointly promote an effective carbon pricing policy to accelerate the low-carbon transformation of the high-emission industries, especially in manufacturing. Our ten policy recommendations cover the overall principles of the carbon fee policy, the carbon fee rate, and relevant supporting measures: Overall […]
2023-08-17
This press release first appeared in the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance on 17/08/2023, and the key points are translated into English and republished here. · Only 7% (128) of Taiwanese listed companies have committed to net-zero by 2050, which slightly increased from 3% last year. · Although 18% (334) of listed companies have interim targets for GHG reduction, they do not make pledges to get to net-zero emission. · 75% (1300+) of listed companies have not set GHG reduction targets nor mentioned any future plan to reduce GHG emissions. · In Taiwan, there are 293 hard-to-abate companies with annual emissions more than 25 kilotons of CO2e, [1] but merely 8% (24) of them have committed to reach net-zero target by mid-century. The Taiwanese government has already committed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 since 2021. Earlier this year, the amendment of “Climate Change Response Act” was finished; relevant policies and “12 […]
2022-12-20
This press release first appeared in the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance on 12/20/2022, and is translated into English and republished here. · 80% (1300+) of Taiwanese publicly-listed companies do not set GHG reduction targets. Even companies with climate goals do not show enough climate ambitions (e.g. Only planning to reduce 20% of carbon emissions by 2030.) · Only 2.7% (47) of publicly-listed companies have committed to 2050 net-zero targets. · Most companies do not have credible climate strategies nor disclose scope 3 emissions, which is not aligned with the criteria of the ‘Integrity Matters’ report published by the United Nations’ High-Level Expert Group at COP27. · To increase the quantity and quality of disclosed climate targets and plans, the Taiwanese authority should develop more ambitious policy instruments, such as corporate sustainability reporting standards, carbon footprint labels for specific products, and low-carbon procurement for public construction. In December 2022, five environmental non-governmental organizations […]
