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.
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