People's Party Legislator Wu Xinying (2nd from right) held a press conference today (16th), with Xiao Daiji, a part-time researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Academia Sinica (2nd from left), Chen Yonghui, director of the Wilderness Conservation Association (1st from left), and Hong Shengbang, director of the Greenpeace Project (right 1) Jointly put forward suggestions on my country's climate policy.

(Photo by reporter Yang Chengyu)

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Taipei Report] Global warming has caused frequent extreme weather, and people from all walks of life are clamoring for carbon reduction actions without delay.

Last year, my country announced the "2050 Net Zero Emissions" target, and related revisions to the "Climate Change Response Act" are currently under negotiation in the Legislative Yuan.

People's Party legislator Wu Xinying held a press conference today (16th) together with militia groups and scholars. She called for reducing barriers to green financing in the financial industry to promote green industrial transformation.

Civic groups and scholars emphasized that the 43% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 is the top priority, and criticized that too low carbon fees or carbon taxes will not help induce companies to implement carbon reduction work.

Xiao Daiji, an adjunct researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Academia Sinica, said that carbon tax and carbon fee are the most important policy tools in the climate law. If they cannot provide incentives for greenhouse gas emitters to reduce emissions, then the system is fake.

He bluntly said that the current climate law only has carbon fees and no carbon tax "it is fake", which is a very big shortcoming.

Because the nature of the carbon fee is a "special public tax", not only the use is strictly limited, but the income is also set very low, so it is difficult to provide incentives for carbon reduction.

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Xiao Daiji mentioned that the Environmental Protection Agency has revealed that it plans to charge a carbon fee of 300 yuan per metric ton for large carbon emitters. Based on this basis, the carbon fee per kWh of electricity is about 0.15 yuan, accounting for 6% of the electricity fee; the carbon fee per liter of gasoline is about 0.68 yuan, It accounts for about 2% of the oil price.

He bluntly said that the cost of such carbon emissions is "insignificant" at all, and the people don't feel it, and there is no incentive to promote carbon reduction.

Therefore, he strongly called for a carbon fee to be levied for 3 years first, and set a sunset clause, after which a carbon tax would be levied, so that the usage would not be limited and the rate could be increased.

Finally, it is hoped that my country's carbon tax rate will be in line with the price of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is the weekly average price of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

Chen Yonghui, director of the Wilderness Conservation Association, said bluntly that the climate law only includes the 2050 net zero carbon emission "target" into the law, which is tantamount to writing a blank check.

In order to ensure that the government will take active actions now, she advocates that the national carbon reduction targets for 2030 and 2040 must be clearly enshrined in the law.

In order to avoid the aggravation of social inequality caused by the collection of carbon tax or carbon reduction actions, in addition to applying carbon tax to carbon reduction, adjustment, and future carbon removal funds, the principle of "tax neutrality" must also be maintained, and feedback will be distributed through the general public to the people.

She asked the Ministry of Finance to plan and impose a carbon tax as soon as possible, starting from 2026.

Wu Xinying said that the National Development Council report pointed out that the financial industry plays a key role in carbon reduction investment. In the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries also noticed that the flow of money can change the world.

Therefore, she called on the National Development Council to propose detailed measures for the 2050 net zero path before the end of this year, and strengthen non-governmental cooperation programs, such as establishing an ESG database, reducing obstacles to green financing in the financial industry, and promoting green industrial transformation.

Wu Xinying believes that the EU CBAM is expected to be implemented in October next year, and the United States and Japan will follow up one after another, while Taiwan is still stuck in carbon fees or carbon taxes.

We should rethink how to rebuild Taiwan's international competitiveness with a carbon tax.

Whether it is ESG, climate change or energy tax, they are all closely related to people's livelihood or enterprises.