The President Announces the Revision of “Greenhouse Gas Management Act” into “Climate Change Response Act” and the Amendment of Articles
On February 15, 2023, the President announced the amendment to revise the Greenhouse Gas Management Act as the Climate Change Response Act. The revised Act includes 7 chapters and 63 articles, thus completing the nation’s legal framework with the aims of addressing global climate change, setting up climate change adaptation strategies, reducing and managing greenhouse gas emissions, delivering generational justice, environmental justice and just transition.
With this Act, the nation fulfils its shared responsibility in jointly protecting the Planet and the environment, ensuring the sustainable development of our nation.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) explained that the purpose of the amendment is to respond to the severity of global climate change, and the increased requirements for global industries to reduce carbon emissions in their supply chains. Internationally, with the imminent imposition of carbon emissions control measures and the tightening of regulations, facilitating the nation’s net-zero transition and enhancing industrial competitiveness have become imperative.
The key elements of the amendment includes: incorporating the 2050 net-zero emissions target, establishing authority and responsibility among agencies, adding the section of just transition, strengthening emissions control and incentive mechanisms to enable emissions reduction, introducing carbon fee with dedicated usage of revenues, adding a chapter on climate change adaptation, incorporating carbon footprint and product labelling management scheme, as well as improving information transparency and citizen participation mechanisms. The said amendment was passed by the Legislative Yuan on January 10, 2023.
How Taiwan promote climate actions
The Act establishes a hierarchical promotion structure for the central government, ministries, departments and local governments. The EPA will discuss with the Bureau of Energy of Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Council of Agriculture of Executive Yuan to develop a national-level “Climate Change Action Guideline” and “Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan”, which are then submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval, formulating the principles and policies for Taiwan’s greenhouse gas reduction. The implementation of the Action Plan needs to be further carried out through the “Emission Control Action Programs” of the six major sectors, including the energy sector, manufacturing sector, transportation sector, residential and commercial sector, agriculture sector and environment sector, as well as the “Greenhouse Gas Control Implementation Plan” formulated by local governments based on regional characteristics to propose specific reduction policies and measures.
Yongan Fish Harbor
National Climate Change Action Guideline
The EPA formulated the "National Climate Change Action Guideline " (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Guideline") in accordance with Paragraph 1, Article 9 of the Act, which was approved by the Executive Yuan on February 23, 2017, serving as the principles for promoting Taiwan's greenhouses gas mitigation and climate change adaptation policies. The Action Guideline takes into account the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. It upholds the spirit of taking both mitigation and adaptation into consideration, and sets out 10 basic principles for Taiwan to respond to climate change. The policy includes 6 major sectors of greenhouse gas reduction, 8 major areas of climate change adaptation, and supporting measures. It also launched cross-departmental response actions, hoping to gradually improve Taiwan’s capability in coping with climate change, and striving to achieve Taiwan’s long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals to ensure sustainable development of the nation.
10 Basic Principles
Laomei Green Reef
National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan
The EPA formulated the "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Action Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") in accordance with Paragraph 1, Article 9 of the Greenhouse Gas Management Act. The Action Plan sets up the division of authority and responsibilities, policy guidelines, and the evaluation indicators of implementation effectiveness for cross-departmental reduction strategies (8 major cross-departmental supporting measures including cap, environmental tax system, green finance and green energy industry, impact analysis and technology R&D, information diffusion and subsidies, climate talent cultivation and awareness enhancement, regulation review and amendment, and sound mitigation finance mechanisms) and the reduction policies of the six major sectors (including energy sector, manufacturing sector, transportation sector, residential and commercial sector, agriculture sector and environment sector), hoping to integrate the capacities of various ministries and departments to jointly carry out the carbon reduction work. In addition, a rolling review mechanism is adopted every 5 years, serving as a strengthening measure to help achieve the carbon reduction target year by year. The First Action Plan (2016-2020) was approved by the Executive Yuan on March 22 2018, while the Second Action Plan (2021-2025) was approved on January 10 2022.
