Liberty Times (LT): What are the unique characteristics of air pollution in Taiwan and the significance of amending the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法)?
Lee Ying-yuan (李應元): People the world over have become increasingly aware of the effects of air pollution on health.
The WHO last year issued a report saying that environmental pollution, including air pollution, causes more than 9 million deaths worldwide every year. Another study shows that half of the deaths were in China and India.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
More than 34 percent of air pollution, especially PM2.5 [airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers], in Taiwan comes from outside sources, such as China, making it a difficult issue to mitigate.
The government can only ameliorate air pollution issues in Taiwan, which account for more than 60 percent of all air pollution in the nation.
Of this number, vehicular and other mobile sources of pollution contribute 37 percent; industrial pollution 31 percent, and another 30 percent or more are fugitive emissions, such as dust, gas emissions from restaurants or burning rice stalks.
Reducing air pollution is not simply a matter of government policy, but rather the simultaneous implementation of such policies across sectors.
The amendments [to the act] seek to elevate the level of administrative authority tasked with handling air pollution issues, from the EPA to cross-agency collaborations or perhaps even the Executive Yuan.
At the same time, the amendments have increased the fines for violators and include clauses on whistle-blower protection and stiffer taxes on illicit gains by polluting factories.
An amendment to Article 190-1 of the Criminal Code has made emissions of harmful substances a criminal act, and violators may be sentenced to at least six months in prison or fined at least NT$20 million [US$655,738].
People who may be held liable for pollution violations have been expanded from just operational crews to include factory managers and corporate entities, with corporations subject to at least 10 times more severe fines and punitive measures compared with individuals.
In contrast, the amendments have reduced fines for individuals.
In terms of mobile sources of pollutants, vehicles that are 10 years or older are to be subject to more stringent standards starting in 2020, but fines for owners who failed to have regular checkups for their vehicles are to be lowered from NT$1,500 to NT$500.
As for public burning of rice stalks that causes air pollution, the fines, which used to range from NT$5,000 to NT$100,000, have been lowered to NT$1,200.
The goal of the amendments is to increase the standards for cutting back pollution and to decrease actions causing pollution — not to impose heavier fines on people.
LT: As air pollution crosses borders from city to city, how can the central government implement the Air Pollution Control Act at the local level?
Lee: The amendments include two clauses, which we call the “two beneficial” clauses.
The first of these two clauses is the “Beneficial Neighbor” clause: Article 6 of the Air Pollution Control Act gives local governments the authority to ask certain facilities to reduce pollution levels.
For example, Taichung could demand that the Taichung [coal-fired] Power Plant or the Formosa Plastics Group’s naphtha cracker in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, reduce their pollution levels or emissions based on the act, instead of using more controversial local autonomy regulations.
Another example is Article 7 of the act, which mandates regions to jointly focus on measures to cut air pollution. This should benefit Changhua County, which often complains of being a victim of air pollution generated by the Taichung Power Plant.
The “Beneficial Community” clause, Article 40, authorizes local governments to designate their own zones for promoting clean air quality. This gives local governments a legal basis to effectively enforce such zones by prohibiting high-pollution vehicles from entering.
The EPA expects to set 115 air quality zones, with harbors and industrial areas being the prime areas considered.
In urban areas, zones will be drawn for school pick-up areas, especially for elementary-school students, whose lungs have not yet developed fully. While these zones will not prohibit parents from driving to pick up their children, drivers will be required to turn off their engines when parked, as cars are high-pollutant-emitting machines.
LT: What concrete measures are you implementing to reduce air pollution?
Lee: Amending the law is only the beginning. Hundreds of new regulations are urgently needed. We will also make unprecedented investments in reducing air pollution.
For stationary source air pollution, the government and industries estimate that hundreds of billions of New Taiwan dollars in annual investments are needed to improve air pollution control equipment. We expect total investments of between NT$800 billion and NT$1 trillion by 2028.
Part of that comes from the requirement for coal-fired plants to install pollution control equipment and ultra super-critical generation units. Those measures should reduce air pollution from power generation by 35 percent and that from the steel sector by 25 percent.
For mobile source air pollution, we urge people to clamp down on auto emissions in the interest of public health.
Regulations for vehicles 10 years or older will be stepped up. Carbon emissions by a two-stroke scooter or motorcycle are nine times that of a four-stroke model.
In principle, any vehicle meeting emission standards are good for the road. However, the government has since 2008 subsidized the replacement of two-stroke scooters and motorcycles. More than 80 percent of such vehicles — or more than 3 million — have already been replaced. Another 200,000 vehicles are more or less inactive.
The remaining 700,000 vehicles, which account for less than 5 percent of the total in the nation, could still be replaced with subsidies next year; their owners could buy a new four-stroke scooter or motorcycle while keeping out-of-pocket expenses as low as NT$5,000 or NT$8,000. This will be a boon for reducing air pollution.
A subsidy of NT$200,000 will be available to phase out the 75,000 older diesel trucks in the country. New truck purchases will receive low-interest mortgages and a subsidy on the interest.
The government’s subsidy scheme for replacing polluting vehicles is expected to boost the share of electric vehicles by 5 percent each year and reduce mobile source air pollution by half until 2035, when all new scooters leaving the assembly lines will be electric.
Additionally, this round of legal amendments will establish the rates of exchange between mobile and stationary source air pollution for industries. A manufacturer could purchase emissions by writing off its older vehicles and use the saved emissions for its factories.
While some environmental groups are concerned that big corporations could buy their way into generating more pollution, the system is only applicable to the Kaohsiung-Pingtung Air Pollution Control Zone and the ratio is one to three; manufacturers need to pay more for vehicle emissions, which should reduce overall emissions.
LT: What are the goal posts in air pollution reduction?
Lee: Air pollution readings from monitoring stations have been improving nationwide, including in the central and southern regions, which have drawn much attention from environmental groups.
Reducing air pollution is a project that cannot be completed in one go, but needs gradual improvements. The government must also ensure that concerns over national economic development, livelihood and employment are not neglected.
However, with elections approaching, we are hearing a lot of political noise that have no place in air pollution policymaking.
For instance, a certain candidate running for a chief local government position has made a campaign promise of not transmitting electrical power generated in the central region for users up north. Meanwhile, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has called for the reactivation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
The northern region — which includes the technology industry in Hsinchu — is the economic heart of this country and crucial to the global technology sector. It would be absurd to abandon Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and other tech firms without thinking what that would do to the economy.
Reactivating the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant while paying no heed to the issue of nuclear waste disposal and nuclear safety risks is also absurd. Anti-pollution and energy policy should not be reduced to sloganeering. There has to be a practicable and actionable program.
Although controversial, the Shenao coal-fired power plant project is part of the government’s energy transition program to reduce the share of energy generated by coal-fired plants from 45 percent to 30 percent.
Some environmental groups and academics have come around to the idea that reducing emissions must have a phased implementation program.
The Air Pollution Control Act amendments show this administration’s commitment to reducing air pollution and energy transition.
To control air pollution, we need the public’s cooperation and their faith that clean skies are in our future.
Translated by staff writers Jake Chung and Jonathan Chin
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