The Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) plans to emulate EU norms when crafting a pollution prevention and control mechanism to reduce domestic industrial emissions.
The European Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Bureau (IPPC) issued a directive in 1996 underlining common rules for pollution-control measures for industrial installations.
The directive defined pollution limits, including on greenhouse gas emissions, and detailed Best Available Techniques (BAT) for industries in order to assist companies in cutting greenhouse gas emissions during production.
The IPPC directive ruled that European factories established after 1999 must be equipped with advanced processing techniques and facilities, as well as follow sound operational norms, to meet global environmental standards.
The directive also states that installations established before 1999 must improve or renovate their manufacturing facilities and techniques by the end of this year.
IDB officials said a draft bill on controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has already been sent to the Legislative Yuan for review. The bill stipulates that once a limit on greenhouse gas emissions is put into force, companies will be required to adopt the BAT directive.
Bureau officials said that although the bill is still under review, the bureau has started work on the compilation of BAT reference documents for various industries in the hope that a local version could be compiled by the end of this year.
Starting next year, the bureau will initiate talks with local labor unions on the nation's efforts to follow BAT ideas, including accelerating the replacement of old machines, raising energy efficiency and cutting emissions of environment-depleting gases.
The IDB also said that new industrial investment projects should draft plans and set targets for controlling and reducing industrial emissions.
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