Trust, Public perception, Risk governance, Global food risk, Delayed-hidden risk culture, Authoritarian policy-making,

The electronics industry plays an essential role in the future of a Taiwan economy based on science, technology, and innovation. At the same time, it is also the most energy-intensive industry. Taiwan is currently driven by high-carbon power generation, and adopts a passive carbon reduction pathway, but unless Taiwan urgently undergoes energy transition, the development of Taiwan’s electronics industry will be impeded. Our analysis found that the petrochemical and electronics industries are the main sources of carbon emissions (27.1%) and electricity consumption (31.6%) in Taiwan, and the existence of the petrochemical industry has constrained the growth of the electronics industry, which has therefore resulted in conundrums to Taiwan’s sustainability strategy. To accommodate the growth of the electronics industry, Taiwan needs to undertake three major transitions: energy transition, industrial transition, and restrain the growth of energy (energy conservation). Under the policy of the nuclear-free homeland, the reduction of coal-fired and thermal power generation, while at the same time increasing the share of renewable energy in power generation, are urgent and important government projects in Taiwan; however, the implementation has been sluggish.

No abstract

As it has an export-oriented economy, Taiwan urgently needs to keep up with the growing trends toward carbon taxation. However, making the institution of a carbon tax a reality in Taiwan has proven to be difficult. Since 1998, Taiwan has explored the possibility of putting a tax on carbon many times. Specifically, three main windows of opportunity emerged to adopt a carbon tax during this period; however, all of them failed. This study mainly explores why these three opportunities failed, what structural factors hindered them, and how those structural factors formed path dependence and locked the entire society back onto the existing development track. Firstly, Taiwan’s high-carbon industrial structure has established the rapid growth of energy-intensive industries since the end of the 1990s and has created an economy with high energy consumption and pollution levels. Secondly, this analysis showed that through the combination of government bureaucracy, industry, and the China National Federation of Industries, this brown economy and high-carbon emission structure generated institutional, cognitive, and techno-institutional complex lock-ins, which have led Taiwan to its current path and hindered its transformation. Thirdly, under the above framework, this study further analyzes the contexts and problems that caused the three windows of opportunity to fail. Finally, by linking the economy-first orientation of developmental states, this study identifies structural difficulties and possible breakthrough conditions for newly industrialized/industrializing countries that are undergoing low-carbon transitions.