Measuring the CO₂ Reduction Performance on Industry Level in Taiwan : Evidence from a Meta-Frontier SBM Model with Undesirable Output

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the CO₂ reduction performance on industry level in Taiwan after the renewable development act that enacted in 2009. We observe that CO₂ reduction performance has risen slightly due to the effectiveness of energy-saving technologies and low-carbon energy structures under the growth scale of Taiwan’s economy in the meanwhile. It is noticed that the target of GHG reduction in Taiwan for 2030 will be controlled at 20% off compared to their 2005 levels, in accordance of the COP21 that made an appeal to their member nation to submit a reduction target about GHG (CO₂) emission. Therefore, to realize the historical situation of CO₂ emission with the consideration of economic growth has been brought to the attention of Taiwanese government for policy planning on mitigating CO₂ emission on either national level or industry level. We can draw several policy implications from the evaluation results. First, we suggest that the government should pay more attention on industrial sectors because they relative underperformed in terms of their CO₂ reduction behavior in the viewpoint of meta-frontier. Second, it is noted that electricity will be the main part of the energy consumption structure. A low-carbon electricity supply portfolio is necessary for decreasing CO₂ emissions. It may not practical, only that expanding the capacity of renewable energies becomes antidote.