Taiwan seeks public input on domestic carbon credit trading rules

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) The government published its draft regulations for governing domestic carbon credit trading Friday, signaling the beginning of a 60-day public consultation period.

The Ministry of Environment (MOENV) published the draft regulations on Friday, ahead of the first batch of international carbon credits being available for purchase on Taiwan's Carbon Solution Exchange (TCX) platform from Dec. 22, with a 60-day public comment period set to start the day after publication.

The platform, which will facilitate the buying and selling of carbon credits, was established in August, but trading is yet to commence.

The regulations, according to MOENV, will govern what can be traded or auctioned, how exchanges take place, who is permitted to buy and sell, the unit of what is being traded or auctioned, and how authorities intend to manage the platform.

Exchanges can be undertaken through set-price trading, auctioning, and negotiated trading. The first two can take place on the platform, while negotiated trading takes place independently, but details will still have to be reported to the authorities, according to the draft regulations.

Sellers are those who have undertaken voluntary emissions reduction projects, while buyers are those required by the Climate Change Response Act to pay carbon fees or otherwise offset their emissions.

The unit of trade will be a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), and all emissions will be converted to an equivalent CO2 level based on global warming potential.

Carbon credits that are traded and transferred cannot be re-traded or re-auctioned, according to the draft.

The ministry will have the right to cap or set a floor price "when necessary." The document explaining the draft articles provided by the ministry explained the discretionary measure was to grant the authorities the right to prevent drastic price fluctuations as a result of "price hype."