2024-09-12
The past three years have seen a proliferation of “just transition” (JT) in Taiwan’s climate policy-making circles. The government’s 12 Key Strategies in Transformation toward Net-Zero Emissions, announced in December 2022, and the updated Climate Change Response Act Parliament passed in January 2023 both featured JT-specific provisions and action plans. Such is the result of years of civil society advocacy and engagement, making Taiwan one of the leading countries worldwide that have defined JT as a guiding principle in their framework laws on climate change. With the policy and legislative frameworks for JT more or less in place, the task now lies in ensuring their robust implementation: addressing and mitigating any negative impacts the transition to a net-zero society may bring, directing funding and resources to workers and communities whose livelihoods the transition hits, and making sure that the technologies and economic activities we transition into do not exacerbate existing […]
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 […]
2024-06-19
China Steel Corporation (CSC), the largest integrated steel maker and the second largest corporate source of emissions in Taiwan, is set to hold its shareholder meeting on 19 June 2024. CSC and its subsidiary Dragon Steel Co. currently emit around 28.64 million tons of CO2 per year, making up 22.7% of Taiwan’s total industrial sector emissions. If CSC fails to decarbonise effectively, it will face risks of increased operational costs from the implementation of the carbon levy and, thus, a decrease in shareholders’ return on equity, all while undermining Taiwan’s efforts to meet the 2050 net-zero emissions target. At the moment, China Steel exports around 45%, and Dragon Steel 30%, of its products to international markets, including Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere. As the Group faces competitors from all around the globe, any lags in its net-zero transition represent future risks of cost increases due to carbon tariffs, loss […]
2023-04-19
Last year, Taiwan’s National Development Council published the “Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-zero Emissions by 2050” and “12 Key Strategies” to respond the trends of 2050 net-zero goals that have been committed by many economies in the world. Based on the targets and strategies, Taiwan’s Industrial Development Bureau also proposed “Net-zero Transition Pathway of Industrial Sector by 2030” to further explain its short- and medium-term plans to drive industrial decarbonization. It is true that the Taiwanese government has made some progress regarding climate policy planning, but it is not sufficient to ensure that Taiwan meets the climate pledges. The biggest problem may be that the “12 Key Strategies” do not have a coherent action plan to decarbonize industrial sector nor innovative policy tools to encourage hard-to-abate industries to adopt low-carbon technologies — despite they produce around 40% of the country’s emissions. Instead of an ambitious industrial plan, measures to cut emissions […]
