Policy paper

Energy and net zero pillar of the UK-Taiwan ETP

Published 30 June 2025

AN ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN

THE TAIPEI REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

AND 

THE BRITISH OFFICE TAIPEI

ON ESTABLISHING THE ENERGY AND NET ZERO PILLAR

OF AN ENHANCED TRADE PARTNERSHIP

BETWEEN TAIWAN AND THE UNITED KINGDOM

THE TAIPEI REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE BRITISH OFFICE TAIPEI (collectively, the ‘Participants’ and each a ‘Participant’);

REAFFIRMING their shared ambition to further strengthen bilateral trade relations, building upon and REAFFIRMING their commitments under the Arrangement for an Enhanced Trade Partnership (‘ETP’) signed on 8 November 2023.

HAVE REACHED the following understanding:

1. Existing rights and obligations

The Participants reaffirm their rights and obligations under the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) agreements.

2. General principles

(a) The objectives of this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero are to promote mutually supportive trade and environmental policies; promote high levels of environmental protection; encourage the Participants to address the urgent threat of climate change and enhance the capacities of the Participants to address trade-related environmental issues, including through cooperation.

(b) The Participants recognise it is inappropriate to encourage trade or investment by weakening or reducing the protection afforded in their respective environmental laws and regulations. Accordingly, the Participants recognise that it is inappropriate to waive or otherwise derogate from or offer to waive or otherwise derogate from its domestic environmental laws and regulations in a manner that weakens or reduces the protection afforded in those laws and regulations in order to encourage trade or investment between the Participants.

(c) The Participants recognise the importance of effective enforcement of environmental laws and regulations applicable in the territory of each Participant and also recognise the importance of promoting high levels of environmental protection.

(d) The Participants recognise the important role multilateral environmental agreements play in protecting the environment.

3. Transition to clean energy: decarbonisation through trade

(a) The Participants recognise the urgent threat of climate change, and the need to accelerate a just transition to a low carbon, resource efficient, and nature friendly economy. The Participants recognise the role that trade and investment policy can play in supporting net zero emissions goals, promoting clean growth, and driving forward respective efforts to combat climate change.

(b) The Participants recognise the importance of strengthening the global response to climate change by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. Accordingly, the Participants affirm their commitment to take actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve their respective domestic net zero emissions targets by 2050.

(c) The Participants reaffirm their commitment to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to support the global transition to clean energy, in order to further climate change and energy security goals.

(d) The Participants recognise the importance of actions to accelerate research, development, and innovation in technologies that support clean, low-cost, and reliable energy and increase collaboration with research institutions, industry, or others, as appropriate.

(e) The Participants commit to strengthen cooperation on trade-related decarbonisation measures via information sharing or bilateral dialogues.

(f) The Participants commit to cooperate and engage constructively in multilateral fora, including discussing and cooperating on issues involving trade-related climate measures, environmental goods and services, and circular economy through the WTO Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (‘TESSD’) Informal Working Groups, and related fora.

(g) The Participants recognise that measures involving decarbonisation through trade should seek to avoid imposing disproportionate burdens on micro, small and medium sized enterprises (‘MSMEs’) and, in the case of Taiwan, should respect and take into consideration the culture and traditional lifestyles of Indigenous peoples.

4. Environmental goods and services

(a) The Participants recognise the importance of facilitating trade and investment in environmental goods and services, including clean technology, as a means of improving environmental and economic performance, contributing to clean growth and jobs, and encouraging sustainable development while addressing global environmental challenges including climate change.

(b) The Participants recognise the importance of promoting trade and investment in environmental goods and services and endeavouring to address potential barriers to such trade and investment. The Participants will cooperate to enhance trade in environmental goods and services in areas which may include: clean energy, clean transport including uptake of electric vehicles, clean heat, carbon capture, utilisation, and storage, and energy efficient products.

5. Resource efficient and circular economy

(a) The Participants recognise that a circular economy and greater resource efficiency is important for the delivery of net zero ambitions, sustainable utilisation of resources, reducing carbon emissions in production and sustainable development of the economy. The Participants further recognise the role trade can play in achieving this transition through trade in second-hand goods, end-of-life-products, secondary materials or waste, as well as trade in related services and technologies.

(b) The Participants commit to strengthening cooperation in a broad range of policy capacity building with respect to a circular economy and resource efficiency, as well as related investment, development, and implementation efforts. Cooperation may include, but is not necessarily limited to, areas such as:

(i) Energy from waste

(ii) Anaerobic digestion.

(iii) Facilitating trade in secondary materials and used goods, and goods for repair, re-use and re-manufacture.

(iv) Resource efficient product design.

(v) Environment labelling.

(vi) Industrial symbiosis.

(vii) Embodied emissions reporting approaches.

6. Environmental protection

(a) The Participants recognise the importance of collaboration to address biodiversity loss, promote sustainable forest management and sustainable agriculture, and the role of nature-based solutions in protecting, conserving, and restoring nature and ecosystems.

(b) The Participants recall their commitments to protect the environment, including to protect and restore forests and nature, to control the production and consumption of substances that deplete the ozone layer, and to reduce air pollution. The Participants recognise the opportunity to deepen cooperation on these issues.

7. Renewable energy cooperation

(a) The Participants recognise that cooperation in the fields of renewable energy and new technologies would provide an excellent opportunity to achieve mutual benefit and boost bilateral trade and investment.

(b) The Participants commit to:

(i) Strengthen cooperation in a broad range of policy capacity building on renewable energy and new technologies, as well as related energy market reform, investment, development, and implementation effort.

(ii) Deepen existing cooperation, including through the Taiwan-UK Energy Dialogue, Renewable Energy Conference and other cooperation plans and mechanisms as appropriate, which could include information exchange on existing programmes, policy frameworks, auctions, technological expertise, supply chain development, and industry-to-industry information sharing.

(c) Cooperation may include, but is not limited to knowledge sharing on:

(i) Offshore wind skills enhancement.

(ii) Offshore wind project financing and funding practices.

(iii) Offshore wind workplace health and safety standard implementation.

(iv) Port development related to offshore wind development.

(v) Grid integration of renewables.

(vi) Floating offshore wind technology.

(vii) Hydrogen and low carbon hydrogen standards.

(viii) Energy storage and grid infrastructure.

8. Qualifications and professional services

The Participants commit to supporting regulators and professional bodies interested in engaging in discussions with their counterparts in relevant sectors, in particular seafarers’ training and education, including the specific training requirements for seafarers involved in the offshore renewable energy sector.

9. Cooperation mechanism

The Participants, through their Designated Representatives, may hold meetings or conduct dialogues, upon request, on issues that are relevant to this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero.

10. General provisions

(a) The Participants acknowledge that, as set out in the ETP, signed on 8 November 2023, paragraph 1 on Designated Representatives and paragraphs 6 to 10 on Information Sharing and Confidentiality, Intellectual Property, Funding, Interpretation and Application, Review and Business Engagement will apply to this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero. The Participants acknowledge the commitments under this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero as an integral part of the ETP.

(b) The Participants’ commitments under this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero may be carried out through their respective Designated Representatives, who may coordinate with relevant competent authorities to ensure that the commitments are effectively implemented.

11. Commencement, amendment and termination

(a) This Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero will come into operation on the date of the later of the Participants’ signatures and will continue to have effect until it is terminated.

(b) The Participants may amend this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero at any time upon their mutual written consent.

(c) Either Participant may terminate this Arrangement on Energy and Net Zero by providing 90 days’ written notice of its withdrawal to the other Participant.

The foregoing record represents the understandings reached between the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom and the British Office Taipei, upon the matters referred to therein. 

Signed in duplicate in the English language.

Chin-Hsiang Yao

Representative

Taipei Representative Office

Ruth Bradley-Jones

Representative

British Office Taipei