ROC Cabinet announces 2016 carbon emissions goal

2016/01/07

Carbon emissions by Taiwan’s five major economic sectors will be capped at 251.04 million tons this year as part of government efforts to fulfill the national reduction commitment.

“Cutting annual output to the average of 2012 to 2014 levels is in line with the goals set out in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act promulgated in July last year,” Minister without Portfolio Yeh Shin-cheng said Jan. 5.

“It also follows the roadmap to achieving the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions unveiled by the Environmental Protection Administration in September 2015.”

Among the five major emissions contributors, Yeh said, industrial activities will account for 48.76 percent of the total, followed by residential and commercial at 25.44, transportation at 14.18 percent, energy production at 10.53 percent and agriculture at 1.08 percent.

The goals serve as the benchmark for the respective sectors before the EPA releases the country’s statutory carbon emissions targets between 2016 and 2020 by the end of the year, he added.

According to the Cabinet, the Council of Agriculture and Ministries of Economic Affairs, Communications and Transportation, and the Interior have been directed to spearhead the efforts.

Under Taiwan’s INDC, greenhouse gasses are to drop to 214 million tons by 2030. This is 20 percent lower than the 2005 level, and will bring the national total in 2050 to half that of 2005.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=240957&ctNode=2194&mp=9)