TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's landmark climate litigation case suffered a significant setback last month as environmental advocates vowed on Wednesday (June 4) to challenge a ruling by the Taipei High Administrative Court (台北高等行政法院), the island's key venue for citizens challenging government actions. The court rejected Taiwan's first-ever climate lawsuit in early May, leading Greenpeace (綠色和平) to announce it would immediately appeal the decision that environmental activists view as a critical test of the government's commitment to addressing climate change.
The legal challenge, initiated in 2021 by Greenpeace in coalition with the Environmental Jurists Association (EJA, 環境法律人協會) and four private citizens, targeted Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA, 經濟部), the government department overseeing industrial and energy policy. The plaintiffs contended that regulations governing renewable energy installation requirements for large-scale power consumers contained insufficient mandates to meaningfully reduce corporate carbon emissions. Greenpeace representatives stated their organization would contest both the legal reasoning and factual determinations in the court's ruling as part of a broader campaign to advance climate justice principles in Taiwan's regulatory framework.
Hsin Yi (忻儀), who directs climate and energy projects at Greenpeace Taiwan, explained that the court dismissed the lawsuit on two principal grounds. First, the judge determined that Taiwan's geographic position in the typhoon-prone Western Pacific naturally exposes the island to severe storms and flooding, making it difficult to establish a direct causal relationship with climate change. Second, the court delivered a potentially far-reaching procedural ruling that Taiwanese citizens possess only the right to petition the government regarding environmental policies, not the standing to pursue litigation against regulatory decisions.
The Greenpeace director countered the court's reasoning by pointing to mounting international scientific consensus linking Taiwan's increasingly extreme weather patterns to global climate change trends. Hsin urged government officials to acknowledge climate disasters as fundamentally human rights issues requiring urgent policy responses. To strengthen their case, the environmental organization referenced a comprehensive 2023 study from National Taiwan University's Center for Weather and Climate Disaster Research (台大氣候天氣災害研究中心), which documented extensive infrastructure damage within a 5-kilometer radius surrounding Fuzhou (浮洲) Station in New Taipei City during catastrophic rainfall that occurred in July 2024.
The environmental advocates further highlighted findings from the same university report that identified Banqiao (板橋) Station, a major transportation hub in the Taipei metropolitan area, as particularly susceptible to flooding due to unfavorable terrain features and insufficient drainage infrastructure. Similarly vulnerable is the densely populated Sanchong (三重) District surrounding Cailiao (菜寮) MRT Station. Greenpeace specifically referenced Typhoon Gaemi, which struck Taiwan in 2024 with abnormally high wind velocities and precipitation levels, as concrete evidence of how climate change is intensifying both the frequency and destructive capacity of extreme weather systems affecting the island.
In concluding their appeal announcement, Greenpeace representatives called for immediate government action to substantially strengthen both carbon reduction policies and comprehensive disaster prevention infrastructure throughout Taiwan. The organization emphasized that such measures represent essential investments in public safety that would significantly mitigate the escalating risks posed by increasingly unpredictable and severe weather patterns confronting the island nation in coming decades. ◼