The Taichung City Government is drafting a bylaw to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the changes set to affect a major coal-fired power plant and a steelmaker in the city.
The bylaw would cap greenhouse gas emissions in the city, with plants and factories that emit more than 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases required to submit an emissions reduction plan to the city government, the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau said on Monday.
The Taichung Power Plant, the world’s largest coal-fired power plant and the largest carbon dioxide emitter in the global power industry, and Dragon Steel Corp, a subsidiary of the nation’s largest steelmaker, China Steel Corp, would be the among the first two regulated entities, the bureau said.
Currently, companies’ carbon emissions are monitored individually based on an application/approval system. The proposed bylaw aims to reinforce pollution source management by setting an overall emissions limit, the bureau said.
Regulated entities will be required to submit a report detailing the types of pollutants discharged and emission volumes, as well as an emissions reduction program, which would be reviewed by the city government before implementation, the bureau said.
Implementation of the bylaw would cover entities in the Port of Taichung, industrial parks, science parks and export processing zones in the city.
The port is the most polluted area in the city: It is the site of the Taichung Power Plant and Dragon Steel, and as more heavy polluters moved in, the port’s administration plans to cap the emission volume in the area and admit only low-emission factories in the future to minimize their environmental impact, the bureau said.
Dragon Steel last month announced a NT$9 billion (US$270.33 million) project to construct enclosed depositories to store bituminous coal to curb fly ash and PM2.5 — airborne pollutants measuring less than 2.5 micrometers — emissions following the passage of a city statute that stipulates such coal must be stored in an enclosed environment.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), operator of the Taichung Power Plant, said on Thursday last week that it would also construct three such depositories that could accommodate more than 500,000 tonnes as part of its emissions reduction plan.
Taipower said it is able to store more coal than Dragon Steel, given its current storage space of 68 hectares that can accommodate 2.28 million tonnes.
The three additional depositories would cost about NT$6 billion each, and the first stage of the project is expected to commence in 2018 and be completed in 2021, it said.
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