On January 30, 2024, a group of 13 petitioners—including two Indigenous people, three farmers, four children, two fishers, and two members of the civil society organization (Environmental Rights Foundation)—filed a petition with the Taiwan Constitutional Court.

They argued that the Legislative Yuan failed to include short- and mid-term Greenhouse Gas emission reduction targets in the 2023 Climate Change Response Act and violate the Constitution. The petitioners made three arguments. First, the Climate Change Response Act fails to include explicit short- and mid-term GHG emission reduction goals, leaving Taiwan without a legally enforceable 2030 emissions target. Second, the Climate Change Response Act fails to specify guiding standards when
delegating authority to the Ministry of Environment to promulgate phase-based GHG reduction targets. Furthermore, the petitioners argue that the Ministry of Environment fails to announce the phase 3 greenhouse gas reduction target, thereby undermining Taiwan’s 2050 net-zero objective.

The petitioners claim that the inadequate legislative and administrative action has violated their constitutional right to life, right to health, right to work, right to housing, and property rights. Greenpeace Taiwan and numerous environmental groups support the petition.

In a supplementary brief submitted in April 2024, the petitioners elaborated on the procedural issues. They claimed that the Constitutional Court should review the case, even if it does not meet the requirements of Article 59 of the Constitutional Litigation Act.

It was contended that the petitioners in the present case lacked any meaningful legal remedies according to the Administrative Litigation Act, and thus should be deemed to have exhausted all available avenues of redress. Moreover, Article 59 of the Constitutional Litigation Act contains no exception clause, thereby leaving individuals without recourse in two critical situations: first, where a legal norm infringes upon fundamental rights immediately upon its promulgation and entry into  force; and second, where the legislature’s failure to enact a legal norm results in the violation of fundamental rights. On this basis, the provision should be regarded as unconstitutional. In support of this position, reference was made to several decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court in which the Court admitted cases concerning infringements of fundamental rights arising immediately upon the promulgation and entry into force of legislation.

In arguments submitted in May 2024, the petitioners further elaborated that Article 59 of the Constitutional Litigation Act violates the Constitution, drawing upon comparative references from Germany, South Korea, and France. On the other hand, Article 6 and Article 10 of the Climate Change Response Act (the contested provisions), together with the Ministry of Environment’s failure to establish the third-phase national GHG reduction target, were argued to constitute disparate impact discrimination (indirect discrimination), thereby infringing upon the child petitioners’ right to equality.

The petitioners ask the Constitutional Court to declare: 1) the Climate Change Response unconstitutional for its failure to include a binding 2030 GHG reduction target. 2) The government to establish scientifically and legally robust pathways consistent with Taiwan’s “fair share” of global mitigation efforts. They argue that further delay would irreversibly endanger Taiwan’s 2050 net-zero
goal, with especially grave consequences for younger and future generations. The case invites the Court to align with an emerging transnational jurisprudence recognizing a state duty to act decisively on climate change to protect fundamental rights.

Lee and others vs. Legislative Yuan (Constitutional Case)

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Lee and others vs. Legislative Yuan (Constitutional Case) - petition

Filed

Taiwan

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A target to reduce the prevalence of a greenhouse gas over a specific time frame

A commitment to balance GHG emissions with removal by a certain point in time, effectively reducing the net emissions to zero

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Heavy precipitation refers to any form of weather where substances fall from the sky, including rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Lee and others vs. Legislative Yuan (Constitutional Case) - petition

Target

Risk

Greenhouse gas