December 2023
Aaron Chen and Sally Yang
To enhance climate governance, the Ministry of Environment amended the Enforcement Rules of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Administration Act on October 27, 2023 in accordance with Article 62 the Climate Change Response Act (hereinafter, the “Act”) by renaming them as the Enforcement Rules of the Climate Change Response Act and revising part of their provisions (hereinafter, the “Draft Enforcement Rules”), and extensively solicited opinions from all walks of life within 30 days after the Draft Enforcement Rules were released.
1. Formulation of the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Action Plan
Pursuant to Articles 9 and 11 of the Act, the Ministry of Environment should formulate and release a national climate change action plan, and review it at least every four years after it is formulated. The central competent authority for specified business (i.e., each responsible department) should invite agencies, scholars and experts, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to participate in a public hearing procedure to formulate greenhouse gas reduction action plans for respective departments.
Under Article 7 of the Draft Implementation Regulations, departmental action plans shall be revised by considering the elements proposed by the United Nations and international climate agreements (such as the Paris Agreement), including greenhouse gas reduction, funding, technology, capacity building, transparency, etc.
2. Establishment of greenhouse gas periodic regulatory goals
Pursuant to Article 10 of the Act, the Ministry of Environment, the central competent authority, should set regulatory goals for periods of five years for submission to the Executive Yuan for approval and public disclosure.
- The procedure for periodic regulatory goals: The relevant central and local relevant agencies, scholars and experts, and NGOs should be invited to participate in a public hearing procedure. Information about the public hearing should be made public on the Internet 30 days prior to the public hearing, and the people can submit their opinions in writing or online during the period of public notice (Article 10, Paragraph 1 of the Act).
- Principles to be considered in setting periodic regulatory goals: The Ministry of Environment should estimate greenhouse gas emission trends and analyze scenarios, propose estimates of power emission coefficients, greenhouse gas reduction scenarios, contributions, and costs of various sectors, and evaluate their possible impact and influence (Article 5 of the Draft Enforcement Rules).
3. Emission survey and statistics
Pursuant to Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Act, the central competent authority for specified business should survey and compile emissions data every year for submission to the Ministry of Environment. Under Article 10 of the Draft Enforcement Rules, the results of the emission survey and compilation should be submitted to the Ministry of Environment before March 31 of each year.
Noteworthy trends
Pursuant to Article 9 of the Regulations Governing the Inventory Registration and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the deadline for registration of business emission inventory is April 30th of each year, and the deadline for uploading verification results is October 31st of each year. However, the Draft Enforcement Rules stipulate that the central competent authority for specified business must compile emission statistics by the end of March each year, causing doubts about whether this will cause businesses to make their submissions one month earlier. Whether this will affect the schedule for businesses to complete investigations, calculations, and registration in the future also depends on the government’s subsequent accommodation measures yet to be observed.
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