Promoting environmental education, stressing environmental harmony and adopting incentive strategies will be major ways for the Environmental Protection Admini-stration (EPA) to tackle problems, EPA head Chang Juu-en (張祖恩) said yesterday.
Chang received an official seal yesterday from Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), who said Chang had been praised by legislators and the public for his experience in the environmental sector.
Chang, who grew up on a farm, said environmental considerations are an important part of rural life.
He said education is the cornerstone of environmental protection. In order to promote environmental protection in daily life, Chang said, the EPA will focus on the establishment of an environmental education law (環境教育法) to embed environmental values, concepts, knowledge and skills into school education and social education.
With a doctorate in civil engineering from Tohoku University in Japan, Chang, 52, has been in the field of environmental engineering for nearly three decades.
In April 2001, when Chang was associate dean of the College of Engineering at National Cheng Kung University, he was invited by former EPA chief Hau Lung-bin (
Hau resigned early last month after Premier Yu Shyi-kun rejected his proposal to disallow referendums on projects if an environmental impact assessment had already been conducted.
The subsequent confrontation between public opinion and environmental professionalism was attributed to Hau's resignation.
Meanwhile, facing nationwide demonstrations against waste incineration, Chang said the policy would be slightly adjusted and the principle of having one incinerator in each jurisdiction could be overturned.
"Regional cooperation on waste management will be promoted in order to cancel the establishment of one or two incinerators," Chang said.
In addition, he said incentives would be adopted for the industrial sector to prevent environmental pollution and promote pollution-control technologies.
"Taiwan might be not only an R&D base for environmental technologies but also an exporter, further contributing to global sustainable development," Chang said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS