The Council of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency work together to add operational methods applicable to agricultural fields under the existing EIA incremental offset mechanism, including adding biomass fuels as alternative fuels, replacing old agricultural machinery and farming equipment, etc. All carbon emissions can be included in the greenhouse gas incremental offset in the development unit's implementation of environmental impact assessment.

(courtesy of AFA Southern Division)

[Reporter Yang Yuanting/Taipei Report] The Council of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency have worked together to add new operational methods applicable to agricultural fields under the existing environmental impact assessment incremental offset mechanism, including adding biomass fuels as alternative fuels and replacing old ones. The carbon emissions that can be reduced by agricultural machinery and farming equipment can be included in the development unit’s implementation of environmental impact assessments to offset the increase in greenhouse gases, creating more income for farmers. To accommodate the benefits of greenhouse gas reduction, the future subsidies for farmers will exceed 50% of the current ones, and the relevant mechanism will be launched this year.

On January 19 this year, the Environmental Protection Agency revised and issued Point 4 of the "Principles for Incremental Greenhouse Gas Emissions Offsets in Examination of Development Behaviors by the Environmental Protection Agency of the Executive Yuan", increasing the source of greenhouse gas offsets obtained by development units, including new biomass The fuel is used as an alternative fuel, the old fishing lamp equipment for fishing boats is replaced by LED fish lamp equipment, the old agricultural machinery is replaced by electric agricultural machinery, the existing aquaculture pond oxygenation equipment is replaced by high-efficiency power-saving oxygenation equipment, and the old equipment is replaced The car is an electric car or a gasoline-electric hybrid car, which is included in a number of agricultural operable projects.

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The Council of Agriculture stated that the principle is a simplified mechanism to quantify the benefits of greenhouse gas reduction. It does not need complex procedures such as monitoring, reporting and verification like the "Greenhouse Gas Offset Project". Instead, it is based on science and uses calculation formulas , participate in the collection of research literature data or statistical values, and incorporate it into the concept of life cycle for one-time verification, and the operation process is exempt from inspection and verification.

Taking the replacement of old agricultural machinery with electric agricultural machinery as an example, replace the original agricultural machinery that uses fuel oil and purchase new electric agricultural machinery. The durability of the newly purchased electric agricultural machinery is conservatively set at 5 years. Replacing an old agricultural machine with a new one can obtain greenhouse gas reduction benefits ranging from 5 to 20 metric tons.

Liu Yuwen, deputy executive director of the Climate Change Adaptation and Net Zero Emission Project Office of the Council of Agriculture, said that it is estimated that the replacement of domestic agricultural machinery may not be very large. As a supporting package, the current subsidy for farmers to purchase agricultural machinery can reach up to 50%, so the 50% of the existing subsidy will be added to the offset amount for assessing carbon reduction benefits, which means that the future subsidy amount will be higher than the current one. 50% is still high, but the detailed measures need to be further formulated.

Due to the large number of small-scale farmers in China, the carbon sinks after farmers’ carbon reduction have been converted into carbon rights by the formula recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency. Considering that it is difficult for enterprises to contact farmers individually to purchase, Liu Yuwen said that the Council of Agriculture considers that the association or organize farmers Groups set up a platform for manufacturers to apply. The platform has the function of collecting and paying on behalf of farmers. It is not only convenient for farmers, but also allows enterprises to subscribe in a way that meets the EIA redemption benchmark. The overall mechanism is expected to be released this year.