In a bid to curb air pollution, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday announced that the overall emissions control system targeting factories in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung air quality zone would go into effect on Tuesday next week.
Under the system, factories in the region must set an emission reduction goal based on the amount of air pollutants they produced in any of the past seven years and cut those figures by 5 percent by the end of June 2018, EPA Department of Air Quality and Noise Control Director-General Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨) said.
Pollutants targeted by the system include ozone, volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxides and total suspended particulate matter.
Chen said that the area is littered with emission-intensive facilities, such as petrochemical plants, power plants and smelters, and is a class 3 air pollution prevention zone, with both ozone and particulate concentrations exceeding the EPA’s standards.
He said that the policy would be implemented in two phases, the first of which would run for three years and would require companies that want to set up factories or expand their sites in the region to obtain emission quotas from existing facilities through a trading system.
Existing plants planning to expand might gain emission quotas from the remaining quota previously granted to their proprietors by local environmental protection authorities, while newly proposed plants would be subject to a “1.2-to-1” rule, where the plant’s proprietor must source up to 1.2 tonnes of emissions quota to be allowed to emit 1 tonne of any of the aforementioned pollutants.
Companies can also exchange less environmentally friendly scooters or cars for emissions quotas or acquire quotas from old vehicles sourced by local governments.
All development projects with estimated emissions that reach 40 tonnes of sulfur oxides, 60 tonnes of nitro oxides, 30 tonnes of volatile organic compounds or 15 tonnes of particulates would be subject to the rule, he added.
Furthermore, operators are required to regulate their emissions by adopting the best available technologies, Chen said.
Establishments that fail to meet the 5 percent requirement and do not make improvements within the given time would incur a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million (US$3,121 and US$32,121) and could have their operations suspended, he said, adding that repeated fining is possible.
Chen said that phase two would focus on calculating the types and amounts of air pollutants identified in phase one that need to be mitigated and reviewing the efficacy of the emission quota trading system, adding that a timetable for reduction efforts would also be proposed at this stage.
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