Starting on July 1, Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County will become the first areas in Taiwan to implement, on a trial basis, the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) air pollution quota control system.
Under the plan, factories in the area will be granted an emissions quota, while old factories that manage to cut emissions levels through the purchase of new equipment will pay a reduced mandatory fee for the air pollution they cause.
The quotas can also be sold to other factories, said Lee Mu-sheng (李穆生), director of the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau.
Factories that experience difficulties cutting their emissions can encourage their employees to use public transport and subsidize them if they do so, allowing the company to then “deduct” the emissions saved on transport from the total pollution the firm produces, he said.
The plan is expected to force old factories to become more environmentally friendly and discourage the establishment of new factories in the area, Lee added.
“In the past, the plan would have met with strong opposition from the industrial sector, but environmental awareness has gained the upper hand in recent years and the city government believes it is time to implement the policy,” Lee said.
“If we don’t do it now, we will regret it in the future,” he added.
Air pollution is a major issue in the Kaohsiung area as several of the nation’s major industrial clusters are located in the city and nearby Kaohsiung and Pingtung Counties.
The Air Pollution Prevention Act (空氣污染防制法) allows the EPA to impose an air pollution ceiling on one or a number of cities and counties and to draw up plans to reduce pollution in the area. The act also empowers the EPA to auction emission quota permits.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
‘POOP ON STAGE’: The song, which talks about the reluctance to graduate and anxiety about a lack of job opportunities, resonated with many students’ feelings The original song Poop on Stage has been chosen as National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation song this year, sparking much debate regarding the song’s title and content, which describes students’ anxiety about post-graduation unemployment. The title, Shang Tai Da Bian (上台大便), is a play on words that literally means “go on stage to poop.” The first three characters, shang tai da (上台大), also mean “to attend NTU,” as “Taida” is a common abbreviation for the university. The last character, bian (便), can mean “convenient” or “then,” but is more commonly associated with defecation. The lyrics of the song describe students’ reluctance to graduate and
RSS