C02 Estimates On Power, Water Bills

Both Taipower, the government-owned electricity generation and distribution company, and the Taiwan Water Corp. now add short statements to their bills to households, notifying consumers how much CO2 they're responsible for. I'm not sure exactly when they started doing this; looking through my old bills, all I can say is that Taipower have been doing it since at least July 2007.

For some months before that, every bill featured a standard note linking electricity consumption with CO2 emissions.

Both utilities now use exactly the same wording, stating (in Chinese only): "The amount of electicity/water you have used has caused CO2 emissions of X kilograms."

The estimates appear in the top right corner of the bills. They're rather small (68mm x 14mm) and the font is probably too small for many people to read comfortably. I'll be asking local friends if they've noticed it or not...

In this July 2006 document, Taipower says it is responsible for more than 30 percent of Taiwan's total CO2 emissions.

One of Taipower's coal-fired power stations emits more CO2 than any other electricity generation facility in the world, according to this report.