Taiwan could set its carbon tax at about US$10 per tonne, which would be higher than that in most of its neighbors, but still well below the level believed necessary to contain climate change.
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said that the government would likely set the levy on carbon emissions, described as a carbon fee, at NT$300 (US$9.51) per tonne, in response to questions from lawmakers at a meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on Wednesday.
However, Chang said that the final price would only be set after the agency revises the Climate Change Adaptation Act (氣候變遷因應法) and consults key industries.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
With new climate change legislation working its way through the legislature, Taiwan is set to join a growing number of governments across Asia that are putting prices on emissions in an effort to meet net-zero targets by the middle of the century.
The nation’s carbon tax would be below South Korea’s, but significantly higher than similar levies in Japan and Singapore.
Almost 50 countries worldwide are pricing carbon emissions through trading schemes or taxes, covering about one-third of emissions, the IMF said.
The average price of a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent needs to be about US$75 by 2030 to effectively limit global warming, but the current level is US$6, it said.
With substantial refining, plastics and cement industries, and most of its electricity coming from coal-fired and gas-fired power plants, Taiwan is one of Asia’s highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, said Germanwatch, a nonprofit organization that tracks global climate risks.
Asia’s carbon markets and taxes have mostly fallen short of making a meaningful impact on the environment. Japan, the first in the region to impose a national carbon tax in 2012, set its levy at just ¥289 (US$2) per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. Singapore’s tax is S$5 (US$3.52) per tonne, while in South Korea it is 25,400 won (US$18.11), about one-quarter of the level in the EU.
Tracy Cheng (鄭楚忻), a campaigner for Greenpeace in Taipei, said that a fee of NT$300 per tonne should be within the acceptable range for companies.
“If Taiwan begins at NT$300 per tonne and increases the fee by 10 percent every year, while also making good use of the revenue from the levy for other investments, it can generate nearly an additional 1 percent of GDP growth by 2045 and reduce carbon emissions by 36 percent,” Cheng said.
“That will bring significant benefits in moving toward net zero,” Cheng added.
EPA would first target large emitters with annual carbon emissions exceeding 25,000 tonnes, with petrochemical, steel, cement and electronics manufacturers likely to be most affected, Cheng said.
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