National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Risk Society and Policy Research Center today called on central and local governments to coordinate plans ahead of a new carbon fee scheme, which is to begin at the end of the month.
The research center and the Center for Sustainability Science held a news conference calling on the central government to establish a carbon fee allocation mechanism, and for local governments to improve climate governance.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Taiwan expects to collect about NT$4.5 billion (US$143.2 million) in carbon fees by the first payment deadline this week.
Photo: CNA
The system was introduced last year, requiring major carbon emitters in the power generation, gas supply and manufacturing sectors that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually to pay carbon fees based on their total emissions from last year.
The center called on the central government to establish fair and transparent criteria for allocating carbon fee revenues as soon as possible.
Local governments should further strengthen climate governance capabilities following amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), which would give local governments a larger share of the central government’s revenue, it said.
The relationship between central and local governments should shift from delegation to partnership, center director Chou Kuei-tien (周桂田) said, adding that they should jointly negotiate net-zero carbon emission goals and implementation strategies, as emissions reduction measures must be tailored to local circumstances.
Local governments should further clarify the responsibilities of climate change promotion committees using tools such as local net-zero autonomy ordinances, said Lee Chung-hsien (李仲軒), an assistant professor at NTU’s Graduate Institute of Public Affairs and a researcher at the risk center.
Climate knowledge must be built from the ground up, and local governments should institutionalize net-zero commitments as long-term policy goals, he added.
As much as they may understand overall electricity usage within their jurisdictions, local governments often cannot access data on high-voltage users, he said, calling on the central government to integrate data across ministries and state-owned enterprises to create a nationwide data platform with local-level data.
Local governments could then convert these data into publicly accessible local databases to allow residents to track urban net-zero progress, he said.
About 70 percent of global carbon emissions come from cities, so only with “net-zero cities” can Taiwan become a “net-zero nation,” National Chengchi University Green Energy Finance Research Center director Chou Li-fang (周麗芳) said.
Municipal carbon budgets are leading indicators for emissions reductions, she said, suggesting that the government channel carbon fee revenues into helping medical institutions reduce emissions.
Green Citizens' Action Alliance director-general Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) further called on local governments to publish annual “gap reports,” detailing discrepancies between targets and implementation, while offering plans for improvement.
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