Carbon reduction is one of President Ma's stated goals for Taiwan, but a legislative solution to this issue is not on the horizon yet. The EPA has therefore proposed a new platform for carbon trading, trying to encourage enterprises to cut down on emissions on their own initiative.

Ma's inauguration anniversary included a call to protect the environment with a need to undertake energy saving and carbon reduction.

However, key legislation to require companies to reduce carbon emissions and key greenhouse gasses is still stuck in the Legislative Yuan.

Still, reducing carbon can not wait as the EPA launched a new trading platform for reducing greenhouse gases, calling upon the enterprises themselves to engage in this activity.

With no legal basis, the whole mechanism is voluntary. President Ma's promise to reduce carbon emissions by 2020 to 2005 levels includes a reduction of 460 million tons to 250 million tons or a decline of 45%.

This is almost an impossible task as Taipower says it will probably have to raise electrical rates.

Leading domestic greenhouse gas emitters, include Taipower, Formosa Plastics Group, and China Steel, say there is heavy pressure to reduce carbon in the future. Taipower said that apart from the global financial crisis last year which allowed domestic electrical consumption to drop and carbon emissions also dropped.

Still, with the economic upturn this year, electricity consumption has increased by 8% and carbon emissions are also expected to increase.

This means that the increased cost of carbon emissions will in the end have to be passed on to consumers.

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