The Ministry of Environment on Thursday announced regulations governing how entities can produce carbon credits or offset their emissions as part of Taiwan’s bid to hit its net zero emissions target.
Two new regulations would oversee how entities manage their carbon emissions: One governs “voluntary reduction projects” by businesses and government entities and the other one governs emissions generated by businesses on development and construction projects, the ministry said.
The first regulation states that entities that emit less than 25,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide — and are therefore not subject to the carbon fee — would be eligible to undertake “voluntary carbon emission reduction projects” that follow the internationally accepted measurable, reportable and verifiable guidance.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The reductions would need to have the characteristics of “additionality, avoiding overestimation, permanence, exclusive claim to GHG [greenhouse has] reductions, and avoiding social and environmental harms,” the Climate Change Administration Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said.
He said “additionality” meant that reductions would have to be made in addition to what entities are already doing to conform to the country’s existing environment-related legislation such the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣汙染防制法).
The voluntary projects would be categorized into the “removal type” or the “reduction or avoidance type,” with carbon removal meaning the elimination of existing carbon emissions, and carbon reduction or avoidance meaning the technology-based reductions of emissions.
Entities that emit more than 25,000 metric tonnes a year — the carbon fee payers — would not be eligible for the “voluntary projects,” as they are obligated to cut emissions, the administration said.
They would be able to purchase carbon credits produced by those who participate in voluntary projects to partially offset their carbon fees, and if they reach a certain reduction goal, they would be granted a preferential carbon fee rate.
The second regulation would require those setting up new factories emitting more than 25,000 metric tonnes a year, or high-rise construction projects, to partially offset their newly generated emissions, either by buying carbon credits from voluntary projects or by implementing other offsetting measures.
Offsetting measures generating “quasi-carbon credits” include replacing motorcycles running on fuel with electric ones, using high-efficiency air-conditioning and replacing old agricultural machines.
Huang said the objective of “quasi-carbon credits” is to shift the burden of promoting electric motorcycles and other energy-efficient products from government to big businesses.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS