Greenhouse gas reduction office opens

Formosa Plastics (FPG), Mailiao. FPG, which tops the list of industrial CO2 emissions, has yet to join the EPA's new emissions reduction program.


Yesterday the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) opened its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Management Office. The EPA has been urging businesses to voluntarily join its emissions reduction program. To date fifty-four businesses have done so but Formosa Plastics Group, which tops the list for industrial emissions in Taiwan, has yet to join.

FPG's current development directly poses threats to the Taiwan humpback dolphins through habitat loss resulting from current and planned land reclamation projects. Many of their development projects will be supplied with water from the controversial Hushan Dam Project which will reduce the flow of fresh water into the Jhoushui River Estuary further degrading habitat critical to the survival of the small and unique population Taiwan humpback dolphins. The Hushan Dam Project is destroying over 400 hectares of the vulnerable Fairy Pitta's most important breeding area.

Environmentalists remain unconvinced that this is nothing more than green-washing as the EPA seems to do little more than talk about cutting CO2 emissions and still seems set on a pro-development course.

See today's Taipei Times for the story.