The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is to be upgraded to a ministry, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) announced yesterday.
The Cabinet decided that the agency would be upgraded to the “ministry of environmental protection and natural resources” to combine the management of national resources, climate change mitigation and soil and water conservation, which are currently handled by different agencies, under a unified chain of command, Lin said at a ceremony in Taipei to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the EPA.
The upgrade, which has been under discussion for more than a decade, is part of the Cabinet’s planned government restructuring, and the Executive Yuan expects to submit its restructuring plan to the Legislative Yuan next month for approval.
Photo: CNA
However, some details still have to be worked out.
The new ministry might be given the authority to supervise national land management, water resources management and mining, but whether it should also be given control of national parks and forests or if they should be put under a “ministry of agriculture” has not been decided, officials said.
“Environmental protection is not at odds with development. Environmental protection and economic development can coexist and help shape an environmentally conscious economy. This is the highest goal of national development,” Lin said.
“Although Taiwan is not part of the UN, it voluntarily complies with international standards to protect the environment, making Taiwan a model for the world,” he said.
The anniversary celebration was attended by former heads of the agency, including Eugene Chien (簡又新), former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), Chang Chu-en (張祖恩) and Stephen Shen (沈世宏).
The EPA began life in 1987 as a unit of the then-Department of Health. It introduced the first ban on plastic bags and drafted the Basic Environment Act (環境基本法), which came into force on Dec. 11, 2002.
EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said the agency would introduce more measures to reduce plastic use to help combat marine pollution as it is estimated that there will be more garbage in the ocean than fish by 2050.
The EPA’s other priorities are to revise the environmental impact assessment system and lower the level of fine particulate matters in three years.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS