A preparatory office for the Climate Change Administration is to be established on Saturday, which is Earth Day, to draft rules governing how carbon fees are to be levied, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
The new agency is to be part of the soon-to-be-established ministry of the environment.
While the draft “organic act of the ministry of the environment” has yet to pass a third reading at the legislature, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Feb. 15 signed the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法).
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
The EPA on Jan. 11 proposed the establishment of a temporary agency to handle climate change affairs.
The plan was approved by the Executive Yuan on March 20.
“However, as the Legislative Yuan on March 22 completed deliberations of the organic act of the ministry of the environment and its agencies, the Climate Change Administration would be established soon after the organic act secures a third reading,” the EPA said in a statement.
“To minimize changes during the transition, a preparatory office for the Climate Change Administration is to be established,” the agency added.
The preparatory office would mainly be in charge of drafting 12 sets of supporting rules for the implementation of the Climate Change Response Act, including to enforce carbon fee collection, to implement a voluntary carbon reduction program, to lay out carbon footprint product labeling standards and to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the EPA said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to