EPA marks 20 years with global vision

Despite this impressive track record, the EPA is taking its mission abroad thanks to its new minister Winston Dang, who, having assumed his post only four months ago, already has introduced radical changes to the Cabinet-level office, particularly in the area of international relations — or what he calls “environmental diplomacy.”

With 15 years of work experience at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency firmly behind him, the U.S.-educated minister, who did postgraduate research at Columbia University in 1968, and holds an MPH from Harvard University as well as a PhD from the City University of New York, is intent on applying the lessons he learned abroad to breathe new life into Taiwan’s EPA.

“We only have one earth. No matter who pollutes this earth on one side, the other side’s ... responsible to help resolve the problem ... because a global problem needs a global solution,” Dang notes.

The EPA under Dang’s leadership is playing its most active role to date in the global arena, evidenced in the recently-established International Affairs Office (IAO) — the first one of its kind in EPA history.

Taiwan used to learn from others about environmental protection, but what it has achieved over the years now enables it to be a teacher, remarks Y.F. Liang, head of the new office.

“Taiwan has done very well in recycling, with as much as 36 percent recycling rate. We used to learn from the United States about recycling some 10 to 15 years ago. Now we’re at 36 percent and the U.S. recycling rate is at only 32 percent. So we do it much better now!”

Among the IAO’s first priorities is to use Taiwan’s environmental strength particularly in the area of waste management to help neighboring countries as well as others in Central America, Africa and the South Pacific islands improve their environment, explains Liang.

IAO projects include setting an air quality monitor station in Guatemala and training programs in El Salvador in recycling techniques, in addition to helping the Marshall Islands in garbage treatment and water purification.

Dang summarizes Taiwan’s attitude and its willingness to help other countries by quoting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, “Some people have 1,000 cups of water but are unwilling to share. Taiwan only has one cup of water but it will share it with others.”

Another priority for the EPA, when it comes to environmental diplomacy, is addressing the polluting effects in Taiwan by other countries, chief among which is China, according to Dang.

China burns so much coal that it creates 40 percent or more of the mercury emissions in the world, and Taiwan is the first victim in the pollutant’s path, he explains.

“This is a serious matter,” he stresses, adding that the international community should put pressure on China to stop polluting the world. “Mercury-contaminated food or fish you can refuse to eat, but mercury in the air you cannot refuse to breathe.”

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