Environment ministry releases revised climate change action guidelines

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) The Ministry of Environment released the updated National Climate Change Action Guidelines on Thursday, incorporating the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and more details on related key strategies first announced in March 2022.

The National Climate Change Action Guidelines were first published in 2017 in response to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act, which was promulgated in 2015, with a stipulation that they should "reflect the nation's economy, energy and environment, the current international situation, and the assignment of responsibilities."

Following the revision of the act into the Climate Change Response Act in early 2023 and the announcement of net-zero as a goal in early 2022, the ministry updated the guidelines and made them public on Thursday.

The revised guidelines retain the same stated aim as the original, namely the need to construct a green and low carbon homeland that is able to adapt to the climate risks and ensure the sustainable development of the nation.

The two objectives of enhancing the country's adaptability and resilience against climate change and reducing green house gases (GHG) emissions are also the same.

One key difference is that in 2017 the objective was the gradual reduction of GHG emissions to 50 percent of the 2005 emissions level by 2050, while the latest version seeks to achieve net-zero emissions by that year.

The guidelines also lay down general principles to be observed by the government.

The unchanged principles include complying with the Paris Agreement and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol that calls for the gradual phase-out of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

Others are transparency in policy-making, enhancing science-based climate change-adaptive capabilities, improving the efficiency of energy use, and emphasizing the partnership between central-local governments and cooperation with non-governmental organizations and international actors.

The revised principles in the updated guidelines are those that follow the net-zero 2050 transition plan made public in early 2022.

This transition is to be based on energy transition, industrial transition, lifestyle transition and social transition, as well as two foundations, which are upgrading technological research and development and strengthening climate-related legislation.

The general principles in the revised guidelines also newly introduce the concept of justice in transition, highlighting the importance of generational justice and environmental justice.

The prioritization of the collection of carbon fees through a cap-and-trade scheme is also a change, as the implementation of the latter is now said to have been "evaluated." The earlier version called for the implementation of both.

The "nuclear-free homeland" goal remains in place, underlining that no expansion in nuclear power will be adopted as a means to combat climate change, but in the same sentence it also stresses that the reliance on fossil fuel will be gradually lowered and renewable energy development goals introduced.

The section on the policies to be adopted follows the same logic.

Policies for general climate change adaptation remain. These include infrastructure resilience, water resource and land use management, and the protection of energy supply, agricultural production, and biodiversity, and reinforcement of medical and disease-prevention system.

Policies for actual climate change mitigation, on the other hand, have been outlined in greater detail and include identifying solar power and offshore wind power as mature renewable energy to be further developed and calling for the development of "forward-looking" geothermal, biomass and marine energy.

The construction of a supply and demand system for hydrogen is also a highlight in the updated mitigation policies.