A decision on carbon fee rates by a review committee set to meet for the first time today might be delayed, Minister of Environment Shieu Fuh-sheng (薛富盛) said yesterday.
At a legislative hearing, Shieu — who last month announced that a decision on the rates would be made by the end of this month — said there were now “no guarantees” due to changes to the “wider environment.”
These include the US not passing the Clean Competition Act at the end of last year as expected and the EU’s delayed implementation of its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Shieu said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
EU importers were originally meant to submit reports under CBAM by Jan. 31, but this deadline was extended by 30 days due to “technical problems,” Climate Change Administration Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said.
Shieh also cited domestic factors, such as an expected rise in electricity rates next month.
“The country’s petrochemical industry has been experiencing difficulties lately, mainly due to China’s oversupply of petrochemicals [to the world], which has driven the price down,” he said.
Many Taiwanese companies in the petrochemical industry are included in the 550 firms emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year that are to be charged carbon fees by the government.
Asked by lawmakers about the rate, which local media reports range from NT$300 to NT$3,000 per tonne, the minister said it would be up to the review committee.
The committee is meeting for the first time today, and does yet have the final decision, Shieu added.
The committee, convened by Deputy Minister of Environment Shih Wen-chen (施文真), is composed of 21 members, with eight experts with various backgrounds including economics, finance, climate change and resource engineering, six representatives from environmental non-governmental organizations and industry associations, and seven representatives from government agencies.
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