An environmental group yesterday expressed skepticism about a Cabinet bill to create a ministry of the environment as lawmakers voted to pass the act in a vote.
The newly passed “organic act of the ministry of the environment” would transform the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) into a ministry responsible for dealing with climate change, conducting environmental impact assessments and recycling, among other issues.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan issued a statement saying that the upgrade does little to address the environmental regulator’s lack of authority to influence natural resource management.
The Executive Yuan’s proposal to establish a multiministerial task force to manage natural resources would likely lead to empty gestures, rather than concrete results, the group said.
Taiwanese environmental groups have been calling for the integration of the agencies in charge of forestry, water, and soil and land development under the EPA for nearly 20 years, to no avail, it added.
The environmental agency needs more than just the power to regulate pollution and carbon emissions to steer the nation through the worsening climate crisis, group executive Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) was cited as saying.
A plethora of agencies acting independently has contributed to the conflicts between renewable energy construction, and the agriculture and fisheries sectors, a problem that the creation of the new ministry would not resolve, he said.
The task force is not likely to communicate efficiently due to being comprised of officials from different agencies, said the group’s attorney Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴), who was also a deputy minister of the EPA.
Furthermore, the natural resource management group has no legal status, meaning there is no limit to how long it can refuse to hold new meetings, he said.
Upgrading the EPA’s organizational level while retaining its area of responsibility runs counter to the ostensible reason for the law, which is improving the linkage between emissions reduction and resource management, he said.
The environment ministry’s structure suggests that it would not have the capabilities needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Chan said.
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