The Climate Change Administration (CCA) on Friday released a tentative outline of Taiwan’s future carbon pricing structure, including capping large polluters’ use of carbon credits to reduce carbon fees at 5 percent of total emissions.
It made the outline public to allow the proposals to be reviewed by stakeholders ahead of the official publication of the draft, the CCA said in a statement.
The official draft’s publication would trigger a 60-day public consultation period, after which the regulations would come into force, it added.
The proposed regulations released on Friday reaffirmed that carbon fees would be introduced for “big emitters” — companies whose direct and indirect annual emissions exceed 25,000 tonnes — beginning in 2025, affecting an estimated 512 companies.
However, some borderline cases with ongoing decarbonization efforts could find themselves below the 25,000-tonne threshold by next year — the baseline year for calculating carbon fees to be paid in 2025, CCA Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said.
Those in the electricity, iron and steel, oil refinery, cement, semiconductor and thin-film transistor LCD industries, as well as all companies with direct fossil fuel emissions exceeding the 25,000-tonne threshold, would be subject to fees, the agency said.
The use of international carbon credits to reduce fees is to be capped at 5 percent of a company’s total emissions in the preceding year, it said.
International carbon credits debuted on the Taiwan Carbon Solution Exchange (TCX) on Friday last week, and the 5 percent limit on their use followed the same standard as Singapore, it said.
However, credits already purchased on the TCX would not be counted when calculating carbon fees for 2025, it said.
“There will be further discussion with the TCX on what international carbon credits will be introduced onto the exchange so they will be able to waive our carbon fees,” Huang said.
Meanwhile, the agency also proposed allowing big emitters to reduce fees by purchasing ministry-authorized domestic carbon credits from firms carrying out emissions reduction projects.
The agency did not clarify if big emitters’ use of domestic carbon credits would be restricted in the same manner as international credits.
Responding to why the administration had released an outline instead of an official draft publication of the regulations, Huang said that this was done to allow for “a round of wider communication with society, creating a more solid consensus.”
A consensus before announcing the publication among stakeholders, including industries affected by the fees, could help the 60-day consultation period proceed more smoothly, he added.
Although he did not give an exact date for the official draft publication, Huang said it was “expected to be done” along with the final version of the regulations in the first quarter of next year.
Friday’s release did not mention the exact carbon fee rate, but the CCA has said previously that it would decide on this figure in the first quarter of next year.
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