In recent years, East Asian countries have pushed for environmental and energy policy reforms, moving towards sustainable low-carbon economies and ‘green growth’ models.1 Policies have been planned or introduced both to price carbon and to support the generation of electricity from renewable technologies. In 2012, Japan introduced feed-in tariffs (FITs) and the first carbon tax in the region; Korea introduced a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in 2012 and started an emission trading scheme (ETS) in 2015; China held discussions in 2012 for introducing a carbon tax, reforming the resource tax, and introducing ETS; and Taiwan has current plans for a renewable energy policy reform.