The ECCT started the Low Carbon Initiative (LCI) to showcase the best European low carbon solutions and practices across a broad range of industries, to raise awareness about sustainable development and promote the adoption of low carbon solutions in order to help Taiwan to reduce its carbon emissions.

The LCI is endorsed and sponsored by companies and institutions that are members of the ECCT. LCI members have contributed to cover the costs of a small project office, the official launch of the LCI, which took the form of an Exhibition & Conference on 12 June 2012, and other project-based activities. Members have also committed their expertise to create a communication platform to exchange best practices and experiences with all stakeholders. Membership of the LCI is open to any member of the ECCT that is willing to endorse the project in a pecuniary or non-pecuniary way.

The European Union is a leading proponent of sustainability both in political and economic terms. The European Commission and the governments of the EU's 27 member states have played a pioneering role in creating a political and legal framework to change their way of doing business and lower carbon emissions. These go even further than reducing carbon emissions to levels set by the Kyoto Protocol guidelines. Successful examples are establishing regulations (2002/91/EC and 2006/32/EC) and the formulation of a European strategy towards renewable energy targets (national renewable energy action plans formulated in June 2010) by 2020. The EU is actively communicating and partnering with countries outside the EU to build an alliance to fight climate change, reduce dependence of fossil fuels and increase the efficiency of resources used for production and consumption. An example of this approach is the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (third countries can join this system and trade their carbon emissions with EU member states and companies).

Besides government activities, which go as far back as the 1970s, European companies have actively embraced and developed sustainable solutions. Sustainability is no longer something firms are just paying lip service to. It has become an integral part of the way European firms do business. Nearly every leading company has integrated sustainability, "green" or low carbon solutions into their internal strategies and visions. They behave as responsible citizens and also promote their ideas among the ranks of their employees, stakeholders and customers.

The Taiwan government is aware of the leading role of EU nations and companies and has adopted many European approaches to sustainability.

For example, the government has copied aspects of the German renewable energy act, studied the UK's building codes and the deployment of renewable energy in Denmark, to name a few examples. Local communities in Taiwan already recognize the importance of a local strategy to decrease carbon emissions and pollution to improve the general quality of life. The central government is aware that the current path of industrial development is not sustainable and has put an extreme burden on government finances and also restricted the competiveness of local companies. A large number of Taiwanese companies have also started their own sustainability or green technology programmes.

The LCI is the platform to move these local initiatives forward and match them with the European experience and strategies to the mutual benefit of European stakeholders in Taiwan, Taiwanese companies, the government and the general public.