Thu, Dec 25, 2003 page4

• EPA floats changes to emissions policy

  GLOBAL WARMING Environmental officials are very concerned that current regulations are having little effect in reducing Taiwan's greenhouse-gas emissions

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The government will make extensive revisions to regulations that aim to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.

  The revisions would be more responsive to international calls for policies that mitigate the negative effects of global warming on sustainable development, the administration said.

  The EPA last week submitted its most grimly worded warning yet that a high-level task force needed to be established to integrate the activities of different government agencies and to develop policy on emissions reduction.

  Carbon dioxide emissions from the nation's energy sector are currently ranked 21st in the world, said Leu Horng-guang (呂鴻光), director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control.

  A stunning 93-percent growth in carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2000 suggested that current policy was not facilitating a reduction in emissions, Leu said.

  "If Taiwan wants to participate in the shared but differentiated responsibilities stipulated by the Kyoto Protocol, the cost of reducing one tonne of carbon dioxide here will be US$109, which is much higher than Japan's US$63, the EU's US$50 and US$96 for the United States," Leu told the Taipei Times.

  Leu said that Premier Yu Shyi-kun demanded a National Energy Conference be convened within six months to discuss policy directions in the energy, industrial, environmental, agricultural and other sectors. Taiwan has not held a conference on this subject since 1998, when energy policy was dictated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.

  "If the nation wants to make significant cuts to carbon dioxide emissions, then the consumption of renewable energy should be increased. Last year, 52.8 percent of carbon dioxide emissions came from the energy sector," Leu said.

  The establishment of a high-level task force on climate-change problems and the Kyoto Protocol has already been approved by Premier Yu Shyi-kun. The creation of corresponding mechanisms in other countries, such as Japan, the US, the UK and South Korea, have also been handled personally by premiers or presidents.

  Using these countries as models had sound reasons, Leu said.

  Japan is the only industrialized country in Asia supporting the Kyoto Protocol, and its industrial structure is similar to that of Taiwan. South Korea, a newly industrialized country, also has a similar economic structure, Leu said.

  Additionally, the nation could emulate the UK, the first country to establish trade regulations relating to greenhouse-gas emissions and to levy climate-change taxes. The US also has the most advanced research and development dealing with climate change, even though it has declined to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, he said.

  The Kyoto Protocol was drawn up at the Third Conference of the Parties, COP3, in Japan in 1997. It aimed to reduce by 5.2 percent the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries at 1990 levels within the five-year period of 2008 to 2012.

  "Taiwan needs to revise its policies, and clarify short-term, middle-term and long-term goals," said EPA head Chang Juu-en (張祖恩).

  For example, Chang said, at COP9 in Milan, rules for afforestation and reforestation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism were adopted.

  Whether Taiwan, a country not party to the discussions, could participate in afforestation projects abroad through other channels deserved further discussion, he said.

  Since 1996, afforestation projects launched by the Council of Agriculture have created 32,000 hectares of new growth around the country.

  Afforestation policies now in effect would be revised to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide, said Chang Bin (張彬), an official from the council's Forestry Department.

  Citing research from Japan, council officials said every hectare of forest absorbs 37 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually while emitting 28 tonnes of oxygen.

  Carbon dioxide is one of six greenhouse gases produced by human activities. Currently, international calls for a reduction in emissions of other gases such as Perfluorocarbons (PFC), which are widely used in the production of semiconductor devices and the TFT-LCD industry, also puts pressure on the industry.

  Niven Huang (黃正忠), secretary-general of the Taiwan branch of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said that domestic firms had come under pressure to take part in international PFC emissions reduction programs.

  "In an age of globalization, a country as important as Taiwan that provides so much direct overseas investment urgently needs a persuasive top-down approach to bring about reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions," he said.

  The EPA's strongly worded submission to the Cabinet-level National Council for Sustainable Development came in response to COP9, the ninth annual ministerial meeting of the 188 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was held in Milan earlier this month.

  A delegation of 26 experts from the government, the industrial sector and several universities headed by Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) and EPA deputy head Lin Ta-hsiung (林達雄) attended the convention as observers.

  The delegation was under the umbrella of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, an NGO partly financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
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