TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A visiting European Union lawmakers delegation has lauded the strength of Taiwan’s democracy, though solutions to the climate crisis have been described as lacking.

Vice President of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala spoke at a press conference in Taipei on Thursday (March 28), on the final day of a visit by a European Union (EU) parliamentarians delegation led by Reinhard Butikofer, chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China. 

The delegation met with Taiwan leaders, including President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and encouraged deeper Taiwan-EU ties that extend beyond economics. Meanwhile, on sustainability issues, Hautala said she felt Taiwan could benefit from a broader policy approach.

“In our discussions with almost all the stakeholders and political parties, there was a total void of proposals for sustainable and credible solutions to the ecological crises the world is going through,” Hautala said. 

A member of the Greens–European Free Alliance (Green-EFA) political group, Hautala said the Green Party Taiwan was the exception to this. She said such solutions seem to be a “non-issue” in Taiwan, and when they are discussed, it is mostly in terms of energy.

“Of course, energy is key to climate change, but there is much more to it than that,” she said.

Hautala described an approach in the EU that seeks to change the whole of society. She noted the European Climate Law, which writes into law the EU’s climate commitments.

“Member states and EU institutions are legally bound to carbon neutrality, which means that we cannot say “let’s do it later,” we have to do it now,” Hautala said.

The Climate Law also considers points of social responsibility, sustainable technology, monitoring, agriculture, waste, land use, and others. In 2023 Taiwan passed the Climate Change Response Act requiring government agencies to take action in some of these areas and outline more specific policies for carbon reduction.

Hautala also described the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which imposes a tariff on imports of carbon-intensive goods, in an attempt to avoid the outsourcing of production to high-emitting markets. “The EU’s initiative on the CBAM has been a smart move to carbon pricing mechanisms,” she said. 

On Wednesday (March 27), Taiwan’s environment ministry said it had discussed implementing its version of the CBAM, but said it would be difficult under existing legislation. 

Environment Minister Shieu Fuh-sheng (薛富盛) said the idea had been proposed in internal discussions. He said the ministry would continue to observe CBAM’s implementation in the EU, and that he did not rule out future law changes to implement this kind of levy if necessary.

Hautala spoke at a press conference hosted by the Taiwan Green Party at the Legislative Yuan. There she was joined by Butikofer, German legislators Boris Mijatovic and Agnieszka Brugger, international trade advisor for Green-EFA Chiara Miglioli, and members of the Taiwan Green Party Namoh Nofu and Joyance Wang  (王彥涵).

Hautaula noted that she was the second sitting vice president of the EU to visit Taiwan. She said upon returning home she would recommend to colleagues that such visits happen more often.