A carbon exchange that is set to open in the middle of next year would help the government meet its net zero emissions goal by 2050, the National Development Council (NDC) said on Saturday.
In a statement released to mark Earth Day, the council said the exchange would help integrate resources and capital to push for emissions reduction through carbon credit trading.
The council said setting up the exchange is part of efforts to reach the 250 net zero emissions goal, which was enshrined into law by the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法) in February.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The act also stipulates a carbon border adjustment mechanism, which enables the government to levy fees on imports of carbon-intensive products.
As a result, Taiwan would from 2050 be bound to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions do not exceed the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere, the NDC said.
The act also forms the legal basis for the government’s plan to collect carbon fees and introduce a carbon pricing scheme, and provides incentives to cut emissions, the council said.
Companies that are unable to reduce emissions due to high costs could purchase credits on the carbon exchange to offset their emissions, analysts said.
On Thursday, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) announced that it is working with the National Development Fund to set up a carbon exchange.
Registration for the new platform would open in the middle of next year, it said.
The digital carbon exchange is expected to offer standardized contracts to buyers and sellers of emissions credits.
The TWSE said that it set up a task force to prepare the platform last year.
The task force has visited Japan, South Korea and Singapore to learn about carbon credit systems, it said.
After the Climate Change Response Act was passed in January, the TWSE started working with the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to expedite the establishment of the carbon exchange, it said.
The TWSE said it is planning to consult with business groups and environmental protection groups on the matter.
The carbon exchange would offer domestic and international carbon credit transactions and other services, including educational programs, the TWSE said.
The carbon exchange would help companies reach their individual carbon reduction targets and reduce their costs to reduce emissions, it said.
The platform is expected to entice Taiwanese and international companies to cooperate on emissions reduction, and help Taiwan boost its efforts to develop its economy while taking environmental protection and social sustainability into account, it said.
The NDC said that the local bourse and the National Development Fund would initially inject funds into the carbon exchange to ensure that the platform would serve as a comprehensive carbon credit exchange mechanism for Taiwan in accordance with the nation’s environmental protection rules.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS