Jui -Chu Lin, Wei-Nien Su

1. Taiwan’s Complementary Measures for Existing Power Plants After the Greenhouse Gases Being Categorized as Air Pollutants Jui-Chu Lin, Wei-Nien Su 2012 PROMITHEAS, The 5th International Scientific Conference on “Energy and Climate Change”

2. Outline • Taiwan’s energy and CO2 emission statistics • CO2 as an air pollutant • Controversies and impacts • Conclusions

3. Taiwan’s TPES • Coal – stabilized • Crude oil and petroleum – greatly increased • Natural gas – increased • Nuclear – a fixed amount • Renewable energy – low • Conventional hydro – almost gone

4. Taiwan’s current energy statistics Total primary energy supply CO2 emissions Source: International Energy Agency, Key world energy statistics 2011 Source: BOE, Energy statistics book 2011, Taiwan

5. CO2 reduction plan • 2009 Taiwan responded the COP 15 of Copenhagen Accord • Bring CO2 emission down to the level of 2005 by 2020 • Bring CO2 emission down to the level of 2000 by 2025 • Carbon emissions in the energy and industry sectors need to be further reduced to offset the increase in other sectors. 254.5 Mt. National 26.3 (10.3%) Energy 123.0 (48.3%) Industry Committee of energy saving and carbon reduction, Executive Yuan, 2012

6. Massachusetts vs. US EPA Key questions • Do states have the right to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to challenge its decision? • Does the Clean Air Act (CAA) give EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases? • Does EPA have the discretion not to regulate those emissions? Supreme court (2007): • Yes to the first two questions. • The Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 USC § 7401 et seq.) authorizes the U.S. EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as air pollutants • National emission standards were proposed in March 2012 for all new fossil-fuel-fired electric facility generated units. • EPA began regulating greenhouse gas after the Supreme Court's ruling in Massachusetts, proposing limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel fired power plants. A final rule on the emissions was set in May 2012. • GHG emission thresholds were set and tailored the requirements for the CAA permitting program to limit covered facilities to the largest GHG emitters: power plants, refineries, cement plants etc.

7. CO2 as an air pollutant • May 9th, Taiwan’s EPA announced “CO2, methane, nitrous oxide(N2O), chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), Tetrafluoromethane (CF4) ” as air pollutants • The 3rd country worldwide– after the USA, Canada • Background: the “Greenhouses Gas Reduction Act” (GGRA) is still under deliberation in the Legislative Yuan. A legal mechanism and enforcement tools are urgently needed to collect the baseline information.

8. Taiwan : Potential impacts

13. Local implications • Contradicting concepts: • Pollutants: cause short-term or long-term damage to plants, animal species or human amenities, comfort, health or property values. > as low as possible • CO2: part of the carbon cycle (photosynthesis) > essential in Earth’s atmosphere • “Enforcement rules of Air Pollutant Control Act” is the only regulatory tool to restrict carbon emissions at the present time. • When the “Greenhouses Gas Reduction Act” (GGRA) will be passed is unknown. Should all administrative measures be considered displacing the GGRA tentatively? or permanently? • Carbon tax-EPA regards the matter under the jurisdiction of the Central Government and local governments are not authorized by self-government ordinances or regulations. http://law.epa.gov.tw/en/laws/761300020.html, http://law.epa.gov.tw/en/laws/atmosph/air.html

14. Conclusions • The 3th country in the world announced “ CO2 as an air pollutant” • Marking an important milestone for Taiwan's Government. 14

15. Conclusions • For the CO2 reduction, there are many disputes between local and central governments. • The EPA’s announcement hints that the central government want to hold all the power of levying Carbon Tax and/or Fee. • The Constitution does not forbid the central government to act. 15

16. Conclusions • Conflicting stances between central and local governments on carbon reduction result from different views on the legitimate legal basis for the carbon tax. • This divergence not only shows the lack of legal analysis on all aspects of this issue, but also that the Central Government may have ignored the problems of uneven distribution of tax revenue and the fiscal shortages of local governments, which cannot be improved immediately. • More integration of the government’s various authorities is needed. 16

17. Conclusions The policy helps formulating the baseline information and MRV the progress in the carbon reduction in the power generating sector By including the CO2 emission standards for new and existing electric utility generating units “Air Pollutant Control Act” regulates the emissions of pollutants and GHGs passively. “Active” measures, e.g. local emission trading scheme (LETS) is needed and to be integrated.

18. Thanks For Your Attention!

19. Acknowledgement • Special thanks to the research assistants, Tze-yu Lee, Kan-ting Hsieh, Shu-Ya Hu, Dr. Bo-Yu Tsai. • Authors would like to thank National Research Council (NRC), Taiwan for the financial support of this project (NSC100-3113-P-007-001) and sponsoring the participation of this conference.