Research Summary

One of the key issues obstructing Taiwan’s transformation toward a net-zero carbon society are the governance deficiencies inherent in the society. On the one hand, the government's inefficient implementation of its carbon reduction policy is a primary bottleneck for the transformation. On the other hand, actors deriving benefits from Taiwan’s high-carbon production regime, such as the steel, cement, petrochemical, and transportation industries, have also mobilized politically to resist the transformation. There is however demand for innovative governance to overcome these challenges. This subproject will employ four inter-related approaches to pursue the goals of a net-zero carbon emission society in Taiwan: first, a comprehensive assessment of the governance deficiencies will be conducted; second, governance instruments to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in Taiwan will be reviewed to identify the gaps; third, governance indicators for the establishment of a net-zero carbon emission society will be developed; and fourth, an analysis of the communication practices will be conducted. In addition, this subproject will use the four aforementioned approaches to evaluate four important policy packages: the administration structure package, the market-based package, the regulatory package, and the communication package. Because the communication package is crucial for the policy implementation toward net-zero emissions, we will analyze how communication practices can be enhanced to improve governance toward a net-zero carbon emission society.