The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) will present a comprehensive plan next month to push for the establishment of a World Environment Organization (WEO), EPA Minister Winston Dang (
Dang, responding to a proposal put forth by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in May calling for the formation of WEO, said the EPA met with environmentalists and academics last month to discuss the issue and held seminars this month to facilitate further discussions.
Dang also disclosed the EPA's policy objectives over the next five years during a report at the Presidential Office on the nation's efforts to protect the environment. These include reducing the percentage of days with poor air quality to below 1.5 percent by 2011 and improving the water quality of five urban rivers in Taipei County, Keelung City, Tainan County, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County, Dang said.
On environmental diplomacy, Dang said an air monitoring station that Taiwan is helping to set up in Guatemala is expected to be completed next year.
In related news, Lin Yu-Kai (
"Despite the detour, the EPA is determined in its anti-global warming efforts," he said. "In the meantime, the EPA will lay the groundwork, such as evaluating and registering the greenhouse gas emissions of all businesses around the country."
The EPA will form a greenhouse gas emission reduction office to centralize the anti-global warming task force, so that all inter-ministry dealings can go through one consolidated body, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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