A Green Development Fund Office is to be launched today, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明) said yesterday, after the Cabinet approved adjusted goals for the third phase of its greenhouse gas emissions targets.
The Ministry of Environment would begin accepting investment requests after the office receives funding in the second quarter of this year, Peng said.
The ministry said it proposed a project to strengthen the National Development Council’s investment in net-zero industries for NT$10 billion (US$332.6 million) last year, which was approved.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
The Presidential Office’s National Climate Change Committee previously announced that it was adjusting the nation’s carbon reduction goal base year — defined as 2005 — by plus or minus 2 percentage points.
This means that the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent and 38 percent by 2032 and 2035 respectively would be more flexible by 2 percentage points, it said.
The proposal was approved by the Cabinet yesterday.
The government aims to promote carbon reduction to achieve net zero, and urged all ministries to step up measures to propose actionable carbon reduction plans, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said, adding that the plans should incorporate public opinion.
The ministry would also assist companies that might have operational difficulties due to US tariff policies, and allow companies to apply for preferential rates if they pose a high carbon risk factor, Peng said.
The ministry said that 252 companies were to provide their autonomous carbon reduction plans by June 30, but the ministry has extended the deadline to Aug. 31.
US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause of their implementation.
However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports.
The Trump administration on April 12 exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs.
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
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