Driving could be banned in several municipalities during days when dangerous levels of air pollution are detected, the Environmental Protection Administration said yesterday.
Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨) made the remarks during an intergovernmental panel meeting in Taipei on air pollution.
The agency is in talks with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to work out the specifics of the rule, which would target private vehicles during rush hours, he said.
A restriction on car buyers is also being deliberated; for instance, those who do not own a parking space or plan to rent one would likely be banned from purchasing vehicles, he added.
Officials who attended the meeting were briefed on the outlines of their respective agencies’ responsibilities concluded during preliminary meetings, and drafted a roadmap for the campaign.
Ministry of Education senior specialist Chiu Jen-chieh (邱仁杰) said two elementary schools would be selected for a trial run of the “air quality flags” next month. The flags come in four colors — green, yellow, red and purple — with green indicating the air quality is “safe,” and red and purple denoting that the air quality is “poor” and “dangerous” respectively, Chiu said.
Students suffering from allergies or respiratory diseases are advised to stay in the classroom and physical education classes would be cancelled or carried out indoors when a red or purple flag is raised by faculty after consulting data by nearby survey stations, he said.
The Bureau of Energy is tasked with developing energy sources and the nation’s “green” industry, thereby boosting the proportion of renewable energy in the nation’s energy portfolio.
It is also to provide guidance to power companies to adopt clean fuels, such as natural gas, as well as collaborate with the private sector in developing and manufacturing electric vehicles and scooters.
The Ministry of the Interior is to continue giving green structure certification to new and existing organizations that promote environmental concepts, and raise public awareness of the correlation between pollution and religious rituals, such as burning ghost money and incense.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will be in charge of overseeing health risk assessments of air pollutants and improve on assessment methods.
Local governments are to be required to devise plans to tackle air pollution and submit them to the panel, which will monitor local authorities’ progress on pollution mitigation.
Apart from the panel, a 14-to-16 member task force comprising academics, officials and residents from the Kaohsiung-Pingtung air quality zone, as well as the Taichung-Changhua-Nantou and Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan air quality zones — where the density of petrochemical and coal-fired power plants are the highest — will meet quarterly to brief the administration on the progress of local governments’ efforts to prevent and reduce pollution, as well as any change in estimated emissions from major industrial projects.
Chen said the panel and the task force aim to cut particulate matter 2.5 — fine particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — levels nationwide to no more than 15 micrograms per cubic centimeter of air, as recommended by the administration.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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