The nation’s manufacturing industries have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1.18 million tonnes this year and cut a total of 8.44 million tonnes of emissions since 2005, the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) said yesterday.
The figure means there is further room for improvement, as the government has set a target of bringing carbon dioxide emissions down to 2008 levels of 2.85 million tonnes by 2020, and to 2000 levels of 2.14 million tonnes by 2025.
It also shows that the government must adopt reasonable pricing strategies to help manufacturers enhance energy efficiency, an academic said yesterday at a government-sponsored conference.
An effective pricing strategy is the key for the government to enhance the nation’s energy efficiency, said Liang Chi-yuan (梁啟源), chairman of the Taipei-based Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院).
Liang said the government could consider an energy tax or incentive mechanism to attract firms to begin “carbon trading,” under which they could purchase rights from others to emit extra volumes of greenhouse gases over a set ceiling.
“The government should initiate economic incentives to effectively enhance overall energy use and efficiency,” Liang said.
The legislature could also establish regulations to limit firms’ greenhouse gas emissions or design a label indicating a product’s emission volumes, so that consumers can understand products being sold and adjust their purchasing behavior accordingly, he added.
Mark Lin (林明儒), convener of the Chinese National Federation of Industries’ (CNFI, 全國工業總會) environmental protection and labor safety committee, said the Environmental Protection Administration’s draft greenhouse gas reduction act (溫室氣體減量法) is not complete because it attributes most responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to industry, with little responsibility being passed to the government and the public.
“There is room for improvement of the act because it is neither practical nor reasonable, and fails to fulfill promises to international organizations,” Lin said.
Lin called on the government not to list schedules and a carbon quota in the act, adding that major decisions should not be made by the Environmental Protection Administration alone, but alongside the IDB and related agencies.
He also suggested the government also require end-users to follow the act so that industries could remain competitive, achieving a “win-win” situation on both economic and environmental protection fronts.
The IDB yesterday gave out awards to 15 manufacturers for their efforts in energy-efficiency and cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS