Taiwan’s Climate Change Mitigation Policies and Their Potential Interaction with the WTO Rules: Focusing on Economic Incentive Measures

Abstract

Taiwan makes no small contribution to the increasing global greenhouse gases emissions due to its industrial and economic structure. According to the statistics published by the International Energy Agency, Taiwan ranks 21st world-wide and 12th in Asia in terms of CO₂ emissions per capita in 2011. On the other hand, as an island state that is prone to natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes, Taiwan is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Taiwan has adopted, and is proposing to adopt a variety of policies and laws for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper will present a brief overview on Taiwan's climate change and related energy policies and laws, focusing on the types of economic incentive measures. In addition to consider the effectiveness and efficiency of these policy tools on Taiwan’s response to climate change mitigation and adaptation, the government also needs to pay attention to her international obligations as a Member to the WTO. After identifying the adopted and proposed climate change and related energy policies and laws, this article will then offer a preliminary analysis on whether these policies fall within the WTO rules and, if they do, the compatibility with the relevant WTO rules.