Environmental Protection Director Zhang Zijing went to the Legislative Yuan Sanitation Committee today to give a business report and prepare questions.

(Extracted from the live broadcast of the Legislative Yuan)

[Reporter Chen Jiayi/Taipei Report] After the third reading of the Climate Change Response Act is passed, the Environmental Protection Agency will complete the revision of important sub-laws within one year, and it is expected to start collecting carbon fees in 2024.

Today (1) Zhang Zijing, director of the Environmental Protection Agency, went to the Legislative Yuan Sanitation Committee to prepare questions. Zhang Zijing emphasized that in order to truly achieve the goal of carbon reduction, the carbon fee will be calculated at a progressive rate, and will not directly call out how much carbon fee is charged for a ton of carbon. .

Legislator Lai Huiyuan said that after the third reading of the Climate Change Law, the Environmental Protection Agency expects to propose 12 sub-laws within six months and impose carbon fees on large carbon emitters.

Taking TSMC's carbon emission of about 1,030 tons in 2021 as an example, assuming that it is calculated at 100 yuan per ton, how much carbon fee is expected to be paid by TSMC every year?

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Zhang Zijing responded that in order to achieve the goal of reduction, the Environmental Protection Agency will not directly call out how much to charge a ton of carbon, but hopes to design a progressive carbon fee rate to promote high-carbon emission industries to accelerate carbon reduction; in addition, companies are encouraged to invest in reduction. Propose a voluntary reduction plan and implement it according to the promised plan to get a more favorable carbon fee rate. However, if the enterprise fails to meet the reduction target, it must pay the carbon fee.

Since the European Union will start the carbon border adjustment mechanism in October this year, it will require the declaration of carbon content in imported products. In addition to the steel and cement industries, nuts and bolts will also be included in the near future.

Legislator Wen Yuxia mentioned that the production of nuts in Taiwan is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, and whether the future carbon fee will also affect small and medium-sized enterprises.

Zhang Zijing said that the European Union is still adjusting the targets of the carbon fee collection. The basic principle of the EPA's carbon fee collection is to replace the small ones with the big ones. It will not require every industry category to declare, and small and medium-sized enterprises will not be included in the carbon fee collection in the short term.

As for the nuts and bolts products that may be affected by the new EU regulations, we will work with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to take stock of the amount of products exported to the EU every year, and study how to guide these small and medium-sized enterprises.

Zhang Zijing emphasized that the primary goal at this stage is to strengthen carbon inventory work.

The first batch of large carbon emitters that should be investigated has increased from 287 to 289; the second batch of inventory registration targets has been announced, targeting the direct annual emissions of fossil fuel combustion and the indirect annual emissions of electricity use totaling 25,000 metric tons Sources are expected to increase by 239 businesses.

In addition, five newly established inspection agencies have obtained inspection agency certification, accelerating the expansion of the capacity of domestic inspection agencies.