Open Energy

Author / David Walther, Postdoctoral Fellow, RSPRC.

Yi-Yang Wang, Assistant Researcher, RSPRC.

Yi-Meng Chao, Assistant Researcher, RSPRC.

Figures & design / Jing Ying Zhang & You Yu Lin, Research Assistant, RSPRC.

 

The theme of this newsletter is about the corporate climate-related financial disclosure, so this OpenEnergy is paired with the topic of corporate climate action tracking. The first target of this article is to track the status of Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) proposed by companies in various countries. SBTi is a global body that enables companies to set aggressive carbon reduction goals based on the latest climate science so as to half emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, while taking into account of the global economy. SBTi cooperates with many international carbon reduction advocacy organizations, and its Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and RE100 are all important references for measuring corporate carbon reduction actions.

 

According to the RSPRC statistics, as of May 31, 2022, the total number of registered companies has reached 3,088 companies, an increase of about 2.7 times compared to 1,134 companies in the same period last year (May 31, 2021). It can be seen that under the global acceleration of net zero, companies applying for SBTi registration have been growing rapidly. According to the SBTi annual report (SBTi, 2022), whose statistics covers the period up to December 2021, global emissions have rebounded as the post-COVID-19 economy began to return to "normal", while the number of SBTi-registered companies, however, has also grown to a historical high (Figure 1); the addition of 1,335 companies in 2021 is three times that of 423 companies in the previous year.

 

Figure 1 The number of SBTi-approved-and-committed companies in each year (Copyright by Science Based Targets) 

Source: SBTi (2022)

 

In addition, the companies that aim to control the temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius has also increased from 41% in 2020 to 68% (the rest with a target at 2 degrees Celsius or within 2 degrees Celsius). It is worth noting that 96% of SBTi enterprises include the Scope 3 greenhouse gas reduction targets ^[1] in the upstream, downstream, transportation, service, and finance of the industrial chain (Figure 2).

 

Figure 2 The proportion of SBTi companies covering Scope 3 targets (Copyright by Science Based Targets)

Source: SBTi (2022)

 

However, the report believes that the world has not yet embarked on the track of halving emissions by 2030, which is also the concern of those involved at the COP26 conference. Even if the goals promised by the INDC and the COP26’s commitments of various countries can be achieved, the global carbon reduction rate will still fail to meet the goal to contain the temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius. To control global warming, all companies and all industries around the world must now set near- and long-term science-based targets in line with the 1.5°C trajectory. However, it is undeniable that with the efforts of the past few decades, enterprises have been rapidly changing in order to adapt to low-carbon production and a low-carbon society. In addition, the preparation level of net zero in Europe is still relatively high. As can be seen in Figure 3, European companies account for 55% of the SBTi list.

 

Figure 3 Distribution of SBTi companies by region (as of May 31, 2022) (Copyright by Science Based Targets)

Source: SBTi (2022)

As reviewed at the COP26, the gap between the rich and the poor countries in the world would have a strong relationship with the ambition and feasibility to fulfill the targets of carbon reduction and net zero emissions. Only 15% of the SBTi companies are from non-OECD countries, while non-OECD countries account for 67% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The top 10 participating companies are all from the OECD countries except for India (8); when expanded to top 20, only India, China (11), and Taiwan (18) are non-OECD members (Figure 1-1).

 

1.The growth status of major countries' commitment / setting of science-based targets

• On a global scale, companies participating in SBTi have grown significantly. By May 31, 2022, there would be 3,088 companies participating in SBTi, a 2.7-fold increase compared to the same period last year.
• On the intercontinental scale, Europe and the European Union are relatively leading in terms of participation or the number of increases. The Asian participants are mainly from Japan and India, and the North American participants are mainly from the United States.
• Figure 1-2 shows the status of SBTi participation in different regions. Since the same period last year (June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022), the United Kingdom has increased the most, reaching 370, followed by the United States and Japan with 248 and 156, respectively. The total number of Taiwanese companies participating is 52, ranking 18^th in the world; however, its increase of 38 companies in the past year tied at 14^th in the ranking (Figure 1-1, Figure 1-2).

 

Note: Viewers with mobile phones/tablets should watch in landscape orientation

Figure 1-1 Status of SBTi participation in various countries

Source: SBTi database, compiled by the research team.

 

Figure 1-2 The number of participating companies and changes in the number of companies in major countries (Number of increases in 2021/6-2022/5)

Source: SBTi database, compiled by the research team.

 

 2.Global petrochemical, steel, semiconductor industry and Taiwan’s SBTi participation

In terms of carbon emission reduction, Taiwan should focus on three industries, namely petrochemical, steel and semiconductor. So, we have particularly tracked the commitments made by the companies in these three industries around the world. So far, there are 145 companies worldwide in the petrochemical, steel and semiconductor industries (the chemical industry, metal fabrication and semiconductor industry in the SBTi list). Coming from the global petrochemical industry were 81 companies (see Table 2-1), an increase of 48 companies from the same period last year, including 29 companies from Europe, 11 companies from Asia, and 5 companies from North America (Table 2-2). From the global semiconductor industry were 28 companies, with 12 (the largest number) from Asia and 3 from Taiwan. If expanded to cover the global electronics industry in a broad term (that is, semiconductor, communication, high-tech and electronic equipment components), Europe has the largest number of electronics companies joining the SBTi, but the top two countries are Japan with 53 companies and the United States with 40 companies, respectively, while Taiwan is ranked third with 33 companies (Table 2-1).

 

Table 2-1 Status of SBTi participation in global petrochemical, steel, electronics, and semiconductor industries (as of May 2022)

Source: SBTi database

 

 

Table 2-2 Number of increases in SBTi companies in the global petrochemical, steel, electronics and semiconductor industries (2021/6-2022/5)

Region	Petrochemical	Steel	Electronics	Semiconductors
North America	5	1	23	4
Latin America	2	4	5	-
Europe	29	12	114	8
Asia	11	11	93	7
Taiwan	1	-	24	3
Africa	1	-	2	-
Oceania	-	1	5	-
Total	48	29	242	19

Source: SBTi database

 

 

 

 Table 2-3 List of SBTi participating companies from Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore

 Source: SBTi database

 

• Among the neighboring countries in Asia, Japan has the largest number of 250 SBTi companies, while 92 companies from Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have joined the SBTi list. Among these three Asian countries that have similar economic development types, levels and scales, Taiwan has 52 companies in the list, an increase of 38 over the same period last year, which is ahead of 15 from South Korea and 13 from Singapore (Figure 1-1). Of the increase in Taiwan, 3 are semiconductor companies. If expanded to cover the whole electronics industry (semiconductor, communications, high-tech and electronic equipment components), the number of increases is 24, accounting for 63% of the increment of 38 companies in the past year (Table 2-2).
• It is worth noting that the industry with the second largest growing number from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022 is the financial industry; included in the new SBTi members list were the CTBC Financial Holding Co., Ltd., the Taishin Financial Holdings, the China Development Financial, and the Cathay Financial Holding Co. Ltd. Moreover, the targets set up by the E.SUN Financial Holding Co., Ltd. passed the validation by SBTi, granting E.SUN the first financial company in Taiwan and the second in Asia to such an honor.
• In Taiwan’s petrochemical, steel, cement, and transportation industries, which are regarded as "harder-to-abate sectors" to achieve the net zero goals, there are only Asia Cement Corporation and Taiwan Cement Corporation in the cement industry, the CTCI Co., Ltd. in the construction industry and Chi Mei Corporation in the petrochemical industry joining the SBTi list.
• Although 250 companies in Japan have joined the SBTi, there are only 5 companies in the petrochemical industry (including tires), 2 companies in the metal industry, and 7 companies in the transportation industry. As for Taiwan and South Korea, only 3 petrochemical companies (including tires), 1 land transportation company in Singapore, and 2 cement companies in Taiwan have joined the SBTi, and no company in the steel industry has yet joined the SBTi. It can be seen that for the developed countries in East Asia, carbon neutrality or net zero emissions in energy-intensive industries seems to be more difficult than in Europe.
  

 

3.Top 30 greenhouse gas emission industries in Taiwan in 2020

• Looking at the top 30 greenhouse gas emissions industries in Taiwan in 2020, the emissions in 2020 decreased by about 3% compared to 2016. It was not a significant result.

• A 2% reduction goal was set for 2020 compared to the base year 2005 for the first phase (2016-2020) of our country's Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act. To achieve this goal, the emission in 2020 must be controlled below 260.717 MtCO₂e（行政院環保署，2022）. It is not yet clear today whether the goal can be achieved or not. The confirmation may need to wait until the 2022 edition of the "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory" is released.
• Our country's Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act also set the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from 2016 to 2020 as the stage-controlled targets. The cumulative target for 2016 to 2020 was 1,437.531 MtCO₂e, while the current cumulative emissions for the four years from 2016 to 2019 reached about 1177.169 MtCO₂e （行政院環保署，2022）. If the cumulative emissions in 2020 are not lower than 260.362 MtCO₂e, the target will not be achieved.

 

Table 3-1 Top 30 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Industries in Taiwan in 2020

Note: Viewers with mobile phones/tablets should watch in landscape orientation

Rankings for 2020	Corporation	Industry	Emissions (MtCO2e)	2016-2020 Change in Emissions	2019-2020 Change in Emissions
1	Formosa Petrochemical Corporation	Manufacture of Other Chemical Products Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material	25.63	-9%↘	-7%↘
2	China Steel Corporation	Rolling and Extruding of Iron and Steel Smelting and Refining of Iron and Steel	19.59	-12%↘	-9%↘
3	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits Packaging and Testing of Semi-conductors	9.38	49%↗	22%↗
4	Dragon Steel Corporation	Smelting and Refining of Iron and Steel	9.14	-3%↘	1%↗
5	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation.	Manufacture of Petrochemicals Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material Manufacture of Man-made Fibers	8.33	-19%↘	0.02%↗
6	Formosa Plastics Corporation	Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material Manufacture of Lime Products Manufacture of Other Chemical Products	7.93	0.15%↗	0.12%↗
7	CPC Corporation, Taiwan	Manufacture of Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacture of Petrochemicals	6.67	-10%↘	-14%↘
8	Nan Ya Plastics Corporation	Manufacture of Synthetic Resin and Plastic Materials Manufacture of Plastic Sheets, Pipes and Tubes Manufacture of Other Non-metallic Mineral Products Not Elsewhere Classified Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material Spinning of Textured Yarn Man-made Fibers	5.83	-3%↘	-1%↘
9	Taiwan Cement Corporation	Manufacture of Cement	4.61	13%↗	3%↗
10	Chang Chun Petrochemical Co., Ltd.	Manufacture of Other Chemical Products Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material Steam Supply	3.47	20%↗	4%↗
11	Asia Cement Corporation	Manufacture of Cement	3.16	-8%↘	2%↗
12	Innolux Corporation	Manufacture of Liquid Crystal Panel and Components Manufacture of Other Optoelectronic Materials and Component	2.94	1%↗	-2%↘
13	AUO Corporation	Manufacture of Liquid Crystal Panel and Components Manufacture of Other Optoelectronic Materials and Component	2.26	-11%↘	-4%↘
14	United Microelectronics Corporation	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits	1.52	-5%↘	3%↗
15	Chang Chun Plastics Co., Ltd.	Manufacture of Synthetic Resin and Plastic Materials	1.41	8%↗	-6%↘
16	Micron Technology Taiwan	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits	1.36	None	1%↗
17	Cheng Loong Corporation	Manufacture of Domestic and Sanitary Paper Products Manufacture of Paper	1.34	-9%↘	-0.04%↘
18	China Petrochemical Development Corporation	Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material Manufacture of Petrochemicals	1.08	-44%↘	-44%↘
19	Dairen Chemical Corporation	Manufacture of Basic Chemical Material	0.82	-47%↘	-3%↘
20	Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation	Smelting and Refining of Iron and Steel Rolling and Extruding of Iron and Steel	0.81	22%↗	1%↗
21	Micron Technology Taiwan	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits	0.80	88%↗	22%↗
22	Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation	Manufacture of Paper Manufacture of Pulp	0.79	-4%↘	1%↗
23	Feng Hsin Steel Co., Ltd.	Smelting and Refining of Iron and Steel	0.76	-2%↘	7%↗
24	Far Eastern New Century Corporation	Manufacture of Man-made Fibers	0.75	13%↗	11%↗
25	YFY Inc.	Manufacture of Pulp Manufacture of Other Paper Products Not Elsewhere Classified	0.75	45%↗	3%↗
26	Lucky Cement Co., Ltd	Manufacture of Cement	0.67	-3%↘	4%↗
27	Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits	0.67	-7%↘	-7%↘
28	Taiwan Glass Ind. Corp.	Manufacture of Sheet Glass and Sheet Glass Products Manufacture of Glass Fiber Manufacture of Glass Containers	0.66	-2%↘	-11%↘
29	Powerchip Investment Holding Corporation	Manufacture of Integrated Circuits	0.63	None	441%
30	CHIMEI Corporation	Manufacture of Synthetic Resin and Plastic Materials	0.61	-8%↘	-5%↘
		Statistics of Top 30	124.38	-3%↘	-2%↘

 

Source: Data.gov.tw (2022)；Entity Greenhouse Gas Emission Data Information (2022). Calculated and compiled by NTU RSPRC team.

Note: The electricity supply industry is not included in this table.

 

In this analysis of top 30 greenhouse gas emission sources in 2020, there were 11 petrochemical companies (with a total of emissions accounting for about 28% of the top 30), 8 electronics companies (15.73%), 4 steel companies (24.36%) and 3 cement companies (6.79%) (Figure 3-1).

 

Figure 3-1 Distribution of top 30 greenhouse gas emission industries by category in Taiwan in 2020

Source: Data.gov.tw (2022)；Entity Greenhouse Gas Emission Data Information (2022). Calculated and compiled by NTU RSPRC team.

Note: The electricity supply industry is not included in this figure.

 

• Based on the 2019 data currently released by the Environmental Protection Administration (Note: the information here is for 2019, not for 2020 as shown in Table 3-1 and Figure 3-1), after allocating electricity consumption from the energy sector to each sector, Taiwan's 2019 greenhouse gas emission sector structure is dominated by the manufacturing sector with 51.37%, while the second largest emission sector is the residential sector with 19.38%, followed by the transportation sector with 12.89%, the energy sector with 13.2%, the agricultural sector with 2.22%, and the environmental sector with 0.94% (行政院環保署，2022).

 

Figure 3-2 Share of greenhouse gas emissions by sector in 2019

Source: Environmental Protection Administration, R.O.C.(Taiwan), 2022. Figure made by NTU RSPRC team.

 

According to the collation and calculation by the RSPRC team, the greenhouse gas emissions by the top 30 companies amounted to about 128.07MtCO₂e in 2019, equivalent to 86.85% of the emissions by the entire manufacturing sector in Taiwan in the same year; while the top ten companies emitted about 103.47MtCO₂e, equivalent to 70.17% of that in the manufacturing sector (Figure 3-3) and about 36.05% of that in the entire country. The top three greenhouse gas emission sources were the Formosa Petrochemical, the China Steel Corporation, and the Dragon Steel Corporation, accounting for about 40% (39.41%) of the total emissions in the entire manufacturing sector, or about 1/5 (20.25%) in Taiwan.

 

Figure 3-3 The proportion of top ten greenhouse gas emission sources in the manufacturing sector in 2019

Source: Data.gov.tw (2022)；Entity Greenhouse Gas Emission Data Information (2022). Calculated and compiled by NTU RSPRC team. 

 

4.The emission reduction trend of Taiwan's top ten greenhouse gas emission companies from 2016 to 2020

• As can be seen from Figure 4-1 below, from 2016 to 2020, the top three companies with the largest growth rates in greenhouse gas emissions were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (49%), Chang Chun Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (20%), and Taiwan Cement Corp. (13%). It is worth noting that according to TSMC’s 2020 Sustainability Report, its total energy consumption in 2020 was about 16.9 billion kWh, of which electricity consumption was about 16.03 billion kWh, equivalent to 5.91% of the 271.247 billion kWh of electricity consumed in Taiwan in 2020. (Note: The electricity consumption of TSMC’s overseas factories was included, so the 5.91% of the electricity consumed was not totally used in Taiwan).^[2]
• According to the collation and calculation by the NTU RSPRC team, four companies (namely Formosa Petrochemical Corporation, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Formosa Plastics Chemicals & Fibre Corporation and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation) in the Formosa Plastics Group, the leader in Taiwan’s petrochemical industry, were ranked among the top ten emission sources in 2019, accounting for about 33.67% of the total emissions from the manufacturing sector, and about 17.29% of the national greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the greenhouse gases emitted by the factories that meet the definition of the petrochemical industry accounted for about 29.78% of the emissions by the entire manufacturing sector and about 15.3% of the total national emissions.^[3]

 

Figure 4-1 The trends of top ten greenhouse gas emission sources during 2016-2020 in Taiwan (Unit: 10,000 metric tons)

Sources: Compiled by RSPRC from Open Government Data Platform (2022); Business Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data Platform (2022). 

 

 

Reference:

1. 行政院環保署 (Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan)（2022）。〈氣候公民對話平臺 - 我國溫室氣體排放及減量總覽〉。2022/6/30檢索。
2. 政府資料開放平臺 (Data.gov.tw)（2022）。〈溫室氣體年排放量〉。2022/6/15檢索。
3. 事業溫室氣體排放量資訊平台 (Entity Greenhouse Gas Emission Data Information)（2022）。〈排放量-單筆查詢〉。2022/6/15檢索。
4. 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司 (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.)。〈109年度企業社會責任報告書〉。2022/6/15檢索。
5. SBTi（2022）. SCIENCE-BASED NET-ZERO Scaling Urgent Corporate Climate Action Worldwide SCIENCE BASED TARGETS INITIATIVE ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT. SBTi.