Taiwan's Ministry of Environment (MOENV) amended the Regulations Governing the Collection of Carbon Fees and the Regulations for Administration of Self-Determined Reduction Plans on September 1, 2026, restructuring when newly covered entities begin paying the carbon fee and tightening the accounting rules for early-action and subsidized emission reductions. Issued under the Climate Change Response Act, the amendment leaves the NT$300 per tonne CO2 equivalent fee rate untouched but materially shifts the compliance calendar for entities entering the system for the first time.
MOENV published the amended Articles 3-1 and 9 of the Carbon Fee Collection Regulations and Articles 11-1 and 17 of the Self-Determined Reduction Plan Management Regulations on September 1, 2026, after a public preview period. The full amended texts of both regulations (official release orders 氣0565 and 氣0601) are downloadable from the MOENV news portal, and the instruments are filed in the Executive Yuan Gazette.
When does the carbon fee duty start for newly covered entities?
Under amended Article 3-1 of the Carbon Fee Collection Regulations and Article 11-1 of the Reduction Plan Management Regulations, an entity that meets the carbon fee threshold for the first time now sees its reporting and payment obligation begin the year after the year in which it must complete its greenhouse gas inventory registration and third-party verification. Previously the duty could attach before a newcomer had a verified baseline. MOENV stressed the change is not a waiver: the entity still pays the fee, but only after it has completed inventory, verification, and baseline establishment, so that any self-determined reduction plan it files rests on audited data rather than estimates.
The regime's core logic is unchanged. Entities must still conduct annual inventory, register and verify emissions, and hit their designated reduction targets; those that miss the target revert to the general fee rate and pay the difference. What the amendment gives a newly covered entity is the operating time to build a defensible baseline before its reduction plan becomes the basis for compliance checking.
How are early-action reduction credits handled?
Amended Article 9 of the Carbon Fee Collection Regulations addresses the transition of early-action project credits (先期專案減量額度), the legacy credits created before the carbon fee system began. MOENV clarified that the amendment operates inside the existing control architecture: a three-year usage deadline, a deduction cap, and a 0.1 deduction ratio ceiling for high carbon-leakage-risk entities. The revision resolves how old-system credits bridge into the fee regime without relaxing the deduction limits or altering the policy direction toward substantive reduction. For compliance teams holding early-action credits, the practical effect is to confirm the spending window and cap structure rather than expand them.
What does the anti-double-counting rule mean for subsidized reductions?
Amended Article 17 of the Reduction Plan Management Regulations blocks double benefit. Where a reduction measure has received a government subsidy, the emission reduction it delivers cannot, as a rule, be counted toward the certified excess reduction that a voluntary reduction plan earns above its designated target. The rule prevents an entity from claiming the same tonne twice: once as a subsidized outcome and once as a carbon-fee credit or reduction-benefit certification.
This matters for entities running abatement projects co-funded by industrial, energy, or environmental programs. Their reduction plan accounting must now segregate subsidized reductions from the pool that feeds the excess-target benefit, or risk having those tonnes excluded at certification.
| Amended article | What changes | Who is affected |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon Fee Collection Regulations Art. 3-1 | Newcomer fee duty starts the year after inventory and verification are complete | Entities crossing the collection threshold for the first time |
| Carbon Fee Collection Regulations Art. 9 | Early-action credit transition set inside the 3-year limit and 0.1 ratio ceiling | Entities holding 先期專案 credits |
| Reduction Plan Regulations Art. 11-1 | Newcomer reduction-plan application tied to a verified baseline | Newly covered entities filing a self-determined plan |
| Reduction Plan Regulations Art. 17 | Subsidized reductions excluded from excess-target benefit certification | Entities with co-funded abatement projects |
Who must act, and what should compliance teams do now?
The amendment binds the roughly 240 companies and 461 facilities already inside Taiwan's carbon fee perimeter (power generation, steel, petrochemicals, semiconductors) plus the foreign firms operating in Taiwan that fall under it, with the sharpest impact on any entity crossing the threshold for the first time. The carbon fee took effect January 1, 2025 at NT$300 per tCO2e, and the first payment cycle closed in May 2026 with all 461 facilities settled. A domestic emissions-trading pilot is slated for the second half of 2026 and a carbon border adjustment mechanism trial declaration in 2027, making baseline integrity and credit accounting consequential for what comes next. For a verified regulatory companion that surfaces a change like this the moment MOENV publishes it, continuous per-jurisdiction monitoring is the operative layer.
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Compliance leads should now confirm whether their operations cross the carbon fee threshold for the first time this cycle and, if so, map the inventory and verification year that triggers the deferred duty start; reconcile early-action credit holdings against the three-year window and the 0.1 ratio ceiling; and audit subsidized abatement projects to ensure their reductions are excluded from excess-target benefit claims under the new Article 17. The amendment takes effect from its September 1, 2026 publication; the next inventory and verification cycle is the practical deadline to align baseline and credit accounting.
