Evaluation of Benefits and Health Co-Benefits of GHG Reduction for Taiwan’s Industrial Sector under a Carbon Charge in 2023–2030

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the monetary GHG reduction benefits and health co-benefits for the industrial sector under the imposition of a carbon charge in Taiwan. The evaluation proceeds from 2023–2030 for different rates of carbon charge for the GHGs by a model of “Taiwan Economic Input Output Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Value” constructed in this study. It is innovative in the literature to simulate the benefits of GHG reductions and health co-benefits of air pollutions for the industrial sector under the imposition of a carbon charge comprehensively. The results consistently show benefits whether the charge is imposed on the scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions or on the scope 1 emissions only. The health co-benefits are on average about 5 times those of GHG reductions benefits in 2023–2030. The average total benefits with the summation of GHG reduction benefits and health co-benefits are 821.9 million US dollars and 975.1 US million US dollars per year, respectively. However, both the GHG reduction benefits and health co-benefits are consistently increasing at a decreasing rate in 2023–2030. The increased multiple for the rate of the carbon charge is higher than the increased multiple of the total benefits and this result shows that the increase of the carbon charge becomes less effective.