20101018 Europe urges Taiwan to do more on climate change

Europe urges Taiwan to do more on climate change

Staff Reporter

A series of prescriptions on climate change proposed by the representatives of various European countries in Taiwan last week calling for immediate action received mixed reactions from local politicians, academics and the business community.

The European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) held a workshop on Wednesday where Europeans shared their experience on managing carbon emission with Taiwan, which is in the process of drafting policies on the matter.

“It’s time for action, for Taiwan authorities to take bold decisions so that the commitments [it has made on greenhouse gas emission reduction] would become a coherent domestic policy,” EETO director Guy Ledoux said in his opening remarks.

Earlier this year, the government set a target of returning its emissions to 2005 levels by 2020, equivalent to a 30 percent reduction, to 2000 levels by 2025 and half those levels by 2050.

During the workshop, Jurgen Lefevere, policy coordinator responsible for international climate negotiations at the Climate Action Directorate-General of the European Commission in Brussels, gave an overview of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), launched in 2005, and recent developments in the international carbon market.

To limit global warming to below 2oC above pre-industrial levels — a universally accepted policy position for global climate change mitigation — the EU has engaged in bilateral and multilateral negotiation to increase the application of emission trading both through linking its ETS with compatible systems in other regions and establishing an international carbon market, Lefevere said.

Lefevere said that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the only international mechanism that allows industrialized countries with binding emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol to invest in offset projects in developing countries, is “not a long-term solution” for global climate change.

“Under the CDM mechanism, all the reductions compared to the business-as-usual scenario are issued as concrete emission reduction credits, basically meaning that it does not reduce global emissions. What the CDM projects reduce is giving us allowances for somebody else to avoid their emission,” he said.

“We have seen the emergence of emission trading schemes around the world, [in] New Zealand, Australia ... There is also a lot of interest in Japan. South Korea has a pilot program in place. In China, we have a very active dialogue now,” he said. “There is a real effort to start moving on emission trading.”

Taiwan Business Council for Sustainable Development -secretary--general Niven Huang (黃正忠) responded positively to the initiative, adding that hopefully the ETS would use the offset credits generated by Taiwanese businesses that -voluntarily committed to early action to reduce carbon emissions.

“Because of Taiwan’s quite unique political situation, we are not able to participate in the CDM scheme. As a private sector, we put much effort into generating carbon credits, but Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration does not seem very interested in recognizing those voluntary carbon projects,” Huang said.

Minister without Portfolio Liang Chi-yuan (梁啟源) said the government was still considering which instruments were best suited for Taiwan. An assessment of whether to establish a national cap-and-trade scheme, impose a levy on energy and CO2 emissions or adopt both is pending, Liang said, adding that public acceptance would also have to be taken into consideration.

“If we had to choose one ... I’d say a carbon tax is more suitable for Taiwan,” he said.

A draft greenhouse gas reduction act, which would impose a cap on larger emitters and set up a national trading system, has been stalled in the legislature since early 2008, while the government has yet to propose a bill to introduce an energy tax, citing a lack of consensus and the sluggishness of the economy.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said the business community had expressed its concerns to the legislature over the draft greenhouse gas reduction act and had reservations about the bill.

Fan Chien-Te (范建德), a professor at National TsingHua University’s Institute of Law for Science and Technology, said Lefevere’s argument that carbon trading was the most cost-effective means to reduce emissions because of its automatic price adjustment made sense.

Lefevere’s view is that the “flexibility” of an emissions trading system is “economically tremendously important.”

Turning to the EU experience, Lefevere said: “[ETS] reduces the burden on industry in times of crisis when industries are less able to pay for emissions allowances. When the emissions go up when the economy is doing well, the allowance price goes back up again, and the industry can afford it.”

Though he agreed with Lefevere on this point, Fan, however, said the case had yet to be made as to why Taiwan should adopt an emission trading system.

“Even though we could be included in the ETS, would Taiwan be entitled to open an account? Meanwhile, when we try to convince businesses that we need to implement a carbon tax, they will turn to us and ask: ‘Why enterprises and not every single Taiwanese?’” Fan said.

Taiwan accounts for “only 1 percent” of the global share of carbon emissions, Fan said. “If we pass a law, what will be our contribution to the world? Why should we do that when we are not eligible to any entitlement or granted entry into any international treaty?”