Sat, May 17, 2025 page2

• Environment ministry releases pollution paper

  EXTRA EFFORT: More diversified environmental policies are needed, as lowering PM2.5 levels is becoming harder due to diminishing returns and higher ozone pollution

  • By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter
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  The Ministry of Environment yesterday published a white paper on air quality policies aiming to bring down PM2.5 level to 8 micrograms per cubic meter while achieving the carbon reduction goal of 38 percent, plus or minus 2 percent, by 2035.

  The white paper was formulated using a bottom-up approach by collecting 570 suggestions from the public and academics to guide the government to set up the 10-year goal and 42 action plans accordingly, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) told a news conference yesterday.

  While stationary pollution sources, such as factories, used to be stressed in air quality issues, mobile sources such as vehicle emissions have become more common and should be considered, he said.

  

  Air pollution blankets Taichung in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times

  The white paper sought to integrate net-zero goals with air quality improvement efforts and set the goal of reducing PM2.5 levels to 8 micrograms per cubic meter in the next decade, aligning with the carbon reduction goal of 38 percent, plus or minus 2 percent, by 2035, Peng said.

  The ministry has planned 62 schemes to meet such a challenging goal, including potential amendments to current air pollution laws, he said, adding that 18 artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools would be introduced to aid the effort.

  Department of Atmospheric Environment Director Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said PM2.5 levels had decreased by 47 percent from 2013 to last year.

  However, a more diversified policy is required, as lowering PM2.5 levels has become more costly in money and personnel due to diminishing marginal returns and aggravated ozone pollution, he said.

  Future air quality improvement efforts would be focused on bolstering people’s health, improving indoor air quality, addressing emerging air pollutants, promoting green transportation and sustainable agriculture, and developing talent and AI applications in this field, Huang said.

  National Central University (NCU) environmental engineering professor Chang Moo-been (張木彬) stressed the importance of citizen participation in counteracting air pollution, saying that turning off unused lights and saving electricity can help reduce carbon emissions by fossil fuel power generation.

  Carbon reduction and air pollution reduction efforts could be mutually exclusive, and would require further research and development to meet both targets, he said.

  For example, factory operators would burn nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds to prevent them from forming ozone, but such combustion would generate carbon dioxide instead, Chang said.

  NCU atmospheric sciences professor Lin Neng-huei (林能暉) said that nearly half of the responsibility to improve air quality would fall on the shoulders of citizens, as pollution from transportation sources made up 27 percent of air pollution and pollution from life sources 20 percent.

  Chang Gung University green energy and environmental resources professor Lai Hsin-chih (賴信志) also raised awareness of transportation source pollution, calling on the public to join the effort by reducing car or motorcycle emissions around schools or traditional markets.

  National Health Research Institutes researcher Chen Yu-cheng (陳裕政) said that PM1.0 — particles smaller than PM2.5 with a diameter of 1 micrometer or less — should be foregrounded to ensure human health, as such tiny particles could enter the blood and reach the brain.
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