Taiwan steps up climate leadership with ambitious reforms - Nikkei Asia
Taiwan steps up climate leadership with ambitious reforms - Nikkei Asia
TAIPEI -- Taiwan is set to push ahead with ambitious climate reforms, including introducing carbon fees, in the new year and strengthening net-zero policies that will change how the private sector operates, according to its new environment chief.
Companies in the power generation and manufacturing industries that produce carbon emissions exceeding 25,000 tonnes a year will have to pay emission fees from Jan. 1, 2024, Taiwan's first-ever environment minister, Shieu Fuh-sheng, told Nikkei Asia in an exclusive interview. There are 512 companies that will fall under this category, he added.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”