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Pollutants also pose a hazard to the economy

Environmental protection groups are often incorrectly denigrated as being opponents of economic development. What these groups actually advocate is creating an economic model that allows sustainable development.

For example, scientists the world over believe that greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for serious global climate changes. With 40 million to 50 million people worldwide suffering from the effects of disasters brought about by changes in the global climate, the world's economy is unlikely to continue growing as it has in the past. What's more, this forecast does not even include the damage that has already been done to the global ecosystem. Recently, companies from the nation's high-tech industry signed an agreement to voluntarily reduce emissions, which is estimated to result in the reduction of 24 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, the high-tech sector's decision is commendable, but I also hope that companies will follow through on their promises.

While the private sector has the vision to foresee the competitive advantage on international markets of making greener products, the government's ecopolicies are not in step with the times, as the government continues to encourage major greenhouse gas emitters like Formosa Plastics' steel manufacturing plant and the Kuokuang Petrochemical plant. These two projects, together with the reservoirs, dams and thermal power plants that will need to be developed to feed these projects, will add to the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of one-third of all greenhouse gases emitted in Taiwan in 2000.

No matter how hard the private sector and the general public try to reduce emissions, their efforts will not offset the increased emissions from these two development projects. Add to this that the volume of volatile organic compounds emitted by Formosa Plastics Group's sixth naphtha cracking plant in Yunlin County alone is already 1.5 times greater than the total emitted by all industries in Taichung County.

How will the residents of Yunlin County be able to cope with the air pollution from these two projects? Although the naphtha cracking plant created 2,000 jobs, its high levels of pollution and water consumption also rendered 5,000 of the county's fishermen and farmers jobless.

And the county's planned new steel mill and petrochemical plant will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the local agricultural and fishing industries.

Whether we look at these two projects from the perspective of the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions they will create or their impact on the disadvantaged farmers and fishermen of Yunlin County, they are unreasonable. As a maritime state, Taiwan's limited natural resources and capacity to handle pollution means that it is inappropriate to develop industries that consume lots of water and energy while spouting copious amounts of pollution.

Faced with global economic competition, Taiwanese industries cannot afford to have disordered or half-baked policies, with high-tech, chemical and steel industries in high demand. Next week, Formosa Plastics Group will conduct the fourth environmental assessment review for new steel mill. While commending the high-tech sector's decision to cut greenhouse gas emissions, I want to urge the government to consider the nation's sustainable development and the livelihood of affected groups. It must make an earnest assessment of the potential impact these two massive development projects will have on Taiwan's sustainable development.

Chen Bing-heng is the secretary-general of Taiwan Ecology Academy.

Translated by Daniel Cheng
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