64 2025 TSMA Conclusions and recommendations Although climate change challenges human society and corporate operations, firms focused on sustainable management and aligning with ESG development trends are crucial to unlocking high-revenue markets. More than 160 countries have declared their goal to achieve net-zero emissions around 2050. Considerations such as climate legislation, disclosure standards, verification criteria, carbon pricing schemes, and carbon footprint-related costs have become critical factors that business leaders must take into account. The global sports goods manufacturing industry is concentrated in the European, American, and emerging Asian markets. Firms are now facing increasingly mandatory demands for disclosing carbon footprints and complying with carbon labeling. While many sports goods products may not immediately be subject to the burden of carbon border adjustments in international trade, the associated carbon costs have already been passed through into manufacturing costs from the supply chain by acquiring basic raw materials. Therefore, carbon management can now be considered a core mandate within the operational frameworks of most manufacturing enterprises. The utilization and auditing of relevant information require dedicated personnel and capacity building, with timely adjustments based on the latest standards and regulations. This is also one of the measures to enhance operational efficiency when engaging with international sustainable supply chain negotiations. It is never easy for any manufacturing industry to achieve net-zero emissions by decarbonization efforts, as it involves complex aspects of energy use. Under the Energy Management Act in Taiwan, firms could identify energy-intensive and high-carbon emission processes through energy audit systems on production lines and set energy-saving targets. Firms could also improve energy-consuming hotspots in manufacturing processes by referring to the Renewable Energy Development Act, the Climate Change Response Act, and the Electricity Act to develop renewable energy applications appropriately and achieve a win-win solution from a regulatory and sustainability perspective. When a firm does not fully consider the carbon costs in operational accounting, it will significantly impact decision-making. Therefore, it is crucial to establish an internal carbon pricing system at the early stage, understanding the potential compliance carbon costs, the reduction costs tied to corporate decarbonization goals in different target years, and the direct and indirect costs associated with carbon footprints. The comprehensive cost consideration approach could help a firm evaluate comprehensive carbon costs from diverse impacts. The assessment of carbon costs should also consider whether they are passed through, internalized, or integrated as part of the enterprise’s transformation competitiveness, with considerations for capital expenditures or liability provisions.
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