between international pressure and democratic drive
TRANSCRIPT
Between International Pressure
and Democratic Drive ─ Challenges and Prospects for Climate Change Approaches in Taiwan
Jiunn-rong Yeh
Professor of Law , National Taiwan Univeristy
Policy and Law Center for Environmental Sustainability (PLES)
National Taiwan University College of Law
Conference on “Legal Possibilities to Strengthen Renewable Energies” April 19 - 21, 2012, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Osaka, Japan
Many Asian States….
• Are contributing to and suffering from climate change in a significant way.
• Are linked to world economy and take part in global climate change governance.
• Have been undergoing democratic transition and experiencing a growing civil society
• A contextualize analysis into Taiwan as an example in the region
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What Typhoon Morakot left behind
Contributing to and
Suffering from climate Change
A Petrochemical plant in Southern Taiwan
Taiwan:
Taiwan Close link to global market economy Democratic transformation and civil society
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Driving Forces……..
Environmental movement Climate change campaign
• Political leadership
•Democratic
outcry
•International
pressure
• Political leadership
•Democratic
outcry
•International
pressure
Leveling up or scaling down?
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Taiwan in the E regime:
“Transitional Environmentalism”
• Environmental awareness and institutional capacity building in Taiwan and many Asian states have been closely related to democratic transition.
• Environmental legislation and the creation of regulatory institutions in Taiwan starting in the late 80’s was primarily driven by the domestic momentum of democratic reform, only in a lesser extent did international pressures imposed from the global community level up the concern over environmental degradation.
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The D side story: The momentum of democratic transition
• A distinctive development model
• The case of Taiwan presents a development models in which political democratization, economic development, and environmental protection have been so closely related that they have reinforced one another.
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From a Base for National Recovery, to developmental state, to Democratic Governance.
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The momentum of democratic
transition • 1950s: a “milk cow” base for launching
national recovery
• Policies of the Nationalist government were directed to recover the lost control and sovereignty over the mainland China, the infrastructure development of Taiwan was largely neglected, and the resources of Taiwan were subject to and exploited only for this very mission.
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The momentum of democratic
transition • 1970s and 1980s: developmental state • The authorities shifted from the long-standing
policy of political mobilization to the goal of economic prosperity through intensive investments in infrastructural establishments and extended international investment and trade.
• Economic prosperity was achieved at the expense of human rights, social justice and the environment
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The momentum of democratic
transition • Mid-1980s: democratic transition
• With the lifting of martial law and the opening of public sphere, environmental protection has gradually been gaining attention in the society.
• Political mobilization had fueled grassroots environmental movements.
• political liberation has also given birth to a series of legislative efforts that led to the expansion of norms concerning environmental protection.
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The momentum of democratic
transition • The prospect for Democratic
environmentalism
• Challenges: Money politics, shortage of institutional check, capacity of the court, lack of confidence in institutions, development-centered preference.
• Further institutional capacity building and reforms are required to meet those challenges.
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The I side story: The imposition of international pressures
• Taiwan in the international community
• Taiwan has not been absent in the trend of global economy integration. Though Taiwan is unable to participate in most of fields of international decision-making due to the problem of statehood dispute, the issues of international economy, trade, and finance seem to be the rare exception in which Taiwan come to be an important player.
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The imposition of international
pressures • The “Rhino Horns & Tiger Bones”
Incident
• In the early 1990s, local environmental groups announced opposition against the use of endangered animals in Chinese medicine; international environmental groups came to Taiwan and conduct investigation.
• Taiwan was imposed trade sanctions by the U.S. according to the Pelly Amendment
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The imposition of international
pressures • The convergence of trade and
environment foreign policy
• This incident has taught Taiwan a precious lesson of the importance of catching up with the development of environmental norms despite its limited access to the world forum.
• In later years, international environmental issues has gradually received the government’s equal attention.
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Taiwan in the C regime:
The Politics of Rhetoric
• Rhetoric climate politics
• The government has been reluctant in making substantive promises, legislation, or aggressive policy change.
• Semi-official channel setting unrealistic and confusing goals of mitigation
• Formalistic response to adaptation aside from disaster relief
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Declared goals of carbon mitigation
Year Declared by goal
1998 National Energy Conference, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Returning to the standard of 2000 by the year of 2020
2008 Presidential Ma’s campaign Returning to the standard of 2008 by the year of 2020 (stricter)
2010 Save energy and reduce carbon Promotion Committee, the Executive Yuan
Returning to the standard of 2005 by the year of 2020 (much stricter)
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Climate plans and programs
Year Name Promulgated by Purpose & Function
2008 Sustainable Energy Policy Program
Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Executive Yuan
Balancing energy security, economic prosperity, and environmental protection
2010 Climate Change Adaptation Policy Program
Council for Economic Planning and Development, the Executive Yuan
Integrating adaptation strategies and policy
2010 General Plan of National Carbon Reduction
Save energy and reduce carbon Promotion Committee, the Executive Yuan
Promoting comprehensive plans to meet the goal of mitigation
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Climate Change legislation
• Legislative efforts, though seemingly more fruitful in comparison, has achieved only limited accomplishment.
• Legislation concerning renewable energy, though passed, is blind to the realistic implementation; legislation concerning mitigation and carbon tax fails to garner enough support in the Legislature.
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Major Climate Legislation
Year of drafting
Purpose & Function Year of passing
Renewable Energy Act
2001 Promoting the autonomy of energy supply and developing clean energy .
2009
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act
2006 Taking measures aimed at emission reduction, including emission trading
Not yet
Energy Tax Act 2006 Taxing fossil fuels including coal, oil, and natural gas.
Not yet
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Reflections on the C regime:
in comparison to the E regime • Continuing democratization provide good
foundation for developing climate change policy, but more on the rhetoric
• Democratization drives the development of environmental awareness, but it cannot go too far due to the features of climate change, including uncertainties.
• The lack of international engagement may not be a big problem in developing environmental regime, but presents a problem in climate change governance.
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The Climate Change Paradox
believe in climate change
Optimistic view Pessimistic view
？
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skepticism
Three Failures and……
• Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin)
• Market Failure (Stern)
• Failure of the Democracy (Shearman and Smith)
•Failure of the Law?
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Resolving systematic institutional
challenges and failure of democracy • The tragedy of the commons
• A dilemma arises from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen.
• (Harding, 1968)
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Resolving systematic institutional
challenges and failure of democracy • Market failure
• Climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging
market failure ever seen, and that a timely action in combating climate change is cost-effective. (Stern, 2006)
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Resolving systematic institutional
challenges and failure of democracy • The failure of democracy?
• The failure of democracy would inevitably lead to the resurrection of authoritarianism.
• “An authoritarian form of government governed not by power-seeking politician but by experts is desirable.” (Shearman and Smith, 2007)
• Faith, modification or better capacity building
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Embracing the dynamics of global
climate governance
• Drawbacks
• State-centric
• Interest-based
• Procedure failure
• Opportunities
• “Up-stream” & “down-stream” governance
• Global judicial networking
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The role of NGOs and institutional
capacity-building
• Environmental NGOs and frontier local
communities
• Environmental groups are able to register for international meetings or conferences as NGOs, and fill the gap between domestic law and the international environmental norms by pushing for more domestic legislations.
• Local governments are exercising leadership in some ways.
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Local Environmental NGO Calls for Action in Combating Climate Change
http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/wp-content/uploads/1208-climate-change-action-taipei.jpg
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The role of NGOs and institutional
capacity-building • Legislative achievement
• Citizen suits clauses & the EIA system
• The role of the court
• The function of the court has been standing out. Recently there have been more and more environmental disputes going to the court; the court has been making progress while sometimes also missed the chance.
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The role of NGOs and institutional
capacity-building • The only judicial decision related to climate
change up to date is the “Hu-Shan Reservoir” case of 2008, a dispute concerning the legality of the government’s decision granting permission to reservoir construction in the EIA process.
• The plaintiff argued that the disputed decision fell short of taking into consideration the effects of climate change; the court dismissed the case for formality reasons.
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Conclusion
• Climate change presents a challenge leveling up from our combat to save the environment since 70s.
• For many Asian states, international pressure and domestic democratic drive are two legs to stand on in combating climate change.
• Reforms must be conducted to make a steady institutional framework for climate policy-making, including changes in the market to better fit new climate policy regulatory tools and the assurance of political system a timely and duly response to climate change.
• Capacity-building in the civil society and in the courts should carry on in national level and global one as well..
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