A Study on Regulatory Requirements of CCS Technology Development in Taiwan

Abstract

The UNFCCC COP17/CMP7, which was held from November 28th to December 9th 2011 in Durban, South Africa. The conference concluded the decision of taking modalities and procedures for carbon dioxide capture and storage in geological formations as clean development mechanism project activities. Although Taiwan is not a member state of the United Nations, the current draft of the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Act of Taiwan is developing in accordance with the principles of the United Nations CDM review mechanism. We hope we can establish consistency and so as to achieve the reduction goal of the industry.The main purpose of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. However, the activity will involve four issues of land ownership, environmental pollution and economic incentives. Furthermore, the impact to environment will be included four parts: geological storage site selection, storage and monitoring, infringement and liability, which depended on policy trade-offs issues. Carbon dioxide that is stored in geological formation tends to have the characteristics to spread around. This problem cannot be handled by current norms of land ownership and is prone to disputes. Therefore, based on requirements of maintaining social order and promoting public interests, it is necessary to establish relative laws and standards. This paper is to study the amendments to the current applicable laws and how to enact new provisions of the laws during CCS technology development in Taiwan under the existing regulatory framework, in order to assist the development of CCS technology.