Taiwan urges steel firms including CSC to cut emissions
Bloomberg reported that Taiwan is forcing some of its largest companies including China Steel Corporation to cut emissions in return for permission to expand on the island, where greenhouse gas output per capita is almost three times the world average.
Mr Stephen Shen head of the Environmental Protection Administration said that the biggest polluters must either slash gas discharges invest in emissions reduction projects or buy carbon credits in global markets. Taiwan will set up an offshore company to help them get the credits.
It may be noted that Taiwan's government is negotiating with companies while pushing them to compete with European and Japanese buyers in the USD 120 billion global carbon market. The policy is a stopgap until permanent emission limits are set under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act being debated in the legislature.
Mr Peter Tzeng, an analyst at Polaris Securities Co in Taipei, said that "For heavy industries, such as electricity, steel and petrochemical, costs will rise. Producers of alternative energy, including wind and solar, will benefit because they may attract investment to offset emissions by heavy industry."
Mr Shen said that reducing companywide emissions by an amount equal to half of what a new plant would produce may become a benchmark in government approval of large industrial projects. He added that "That policy may be applied to the TWD 280 billion plan to expand energy and chemical production in the Mailiao township by Formosa Plastics Group, parent of the island’s only publicly traded refiner."
Mr Shen further said that the government's proposed offshore company, most likely in Japan, will help Taiwanese companies accrue carbon credits certified by the United Nations in a cost effective way."
Mr Ma Ying jeou President of Taiwan has pledged to cut carbon emissions to 2008 levels between 2016 and 2020 and to 2000 levels by 2025. Local companies, so far not bound by law to offset greenhouse gas output, already may voluntarily buy credits in non UN markets such as the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange or sponsor carbon cutting projects such as wind farms.
Taiwan Power Co is requesting that the environmental agency retract its September 2nd 2009 demand that the island’s biggest electricity producer start estimating the amount of carbon credits it needs to buy over the next 15 years. The company accounts for about 30% of the island's emissions.
Mr Shen said that Dragon Steel Corporation, a unit of China Steel Corporation, has pledged to cut emissions and may buy carbon credits as it doubles production capacity. The expansion to 5 million tonnes a year may come on stream in 2013. The company has no estimate of additional costs.
Mr Lin Maw wen VP at CPC Corporation, Taiwan's state run oil refiner, said that it will plant trees on the island to help reduce emissions as it expands capacity to produce petrochemicals.
(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)
