Taiwan’s Cabinet passed a draft revision Thursday to amend the name of the “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act” and include in it the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
The draft revision, which will rename the law the “Climate Change Response Act,” was approved by the Cabinet just one day before Earth Day and will be sent to Legislative Yuan for review.
Other major revisions proposed include adding the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and enhancing climate governance.
The current “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act” sets the nation’s greenhouse gas reduction goal by 2050 to below 50 percent of the level in 2005.
The proposed amendment explicitly designates the Executive Yuan’s National Council for Sustainable Development as responsible for coordinating, assigning and integrating the fundamental principles in the nation’s response to climate change, while local governments will be required to establish related response initiatives.
In order to achieve the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the proposed amendment also introduces a carbon levy for domestic emission sources.
The levy will be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop low carbon and negative emissions technologies/industry, while providing subsidies and awards for investment in greenhouse gas reduction technologies, promoting the move to a low carbon economy development.
Tsai Hung-teh (???), deputy minister of the Environmental Protection Administration, said consultations will be held with enterprises and the public about the levy in the second half of the year, while the collection of fees is expected to begin in 2024-2025.
The “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act” was passed in 2015, making Taiwan one of the few countries in the world to write a long-term reduction goal into law.
However, as global climate change has become more severe, the draft revision is being proposed to expedite carbon reduction in Taiwan and to strengthen the nation’s fight against climate change.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel