The Executive Yuan plans to re-evaluate Taiwan’s carbon emissions goal by the end of next year, in line with the Glasgow Climate Pact, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said yesterday.
Under the Glasgow Climate Pact — an agreement reached at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), which concluded earlier this month — countries should “revisit and strengthen” their targets for 2030 to align with the temperature goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The goal set by the Paris Agreement would limit global warming to less than 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared with pre-industrial levels.
Chang yesterday said at a legislative hearing that in keeping with the pact, the Executive Yuan would re-evaluate Taiwan’s carbon emission goals for 2030 by the end of next year.
Taiwan’s official emissions reduction target is stated in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act (溫室氣體減量及管理法), passed in 2015, which calls for an emissions reduction of at least 50 percent of 2005’s levels by 2050.
The EPA states on its Web site that it aims to reduce carbon emission levels to 20 percent below those of 2005 by 2030, and that carbon emissions last year decreased by 2 percent against 2005 levels.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in April said that Taiwan was making “relevant preparations” to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the goals of the international community.
Chang also said yesterday that a climate action act that the EPA is drafting is to include rules on carbon pricing, with the revenue being invested in measures to decrease emissions.
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