Insufficient Trans-boundary Risk Knowledge and Governance Stalemate in Taiwan''s PM2.5 Policy-making

• Main Authors: David Walther, 王瑞庚
• Other Authors: 周桂田
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6k53ng

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國家發展研究所 === 106 === In Taiwan, the air quality has deteriorated due to severe PM2.5 pollution. Only 4 of 31 manual monitoring sites in various regions met the 2017 recommended annual standard of WHO. However, it took 17 years from the beginning of research to the proposal of the air quality policy in 2017, which has an annual average goal of 18μg/m3 by 2020, but mismatches the legal standard of 15μg/m3. Handling trans-boundary risk knowledge and proposing a robust risk discourse to enhance responsibility are the key concepts of air quality regulations in the U.S., which was the first country to set the PM2.5 standard. According to the general view of PM2.5 standard and the regulation processes in Taiwan, the knowledge of trans-boundary risk is deficient and ignorant. The research findings have shown that besides the fact that the regions in Taiwan severely have exceeded the standard, the PM2.5 risk allocation shows that both agricultural counties are polluted by petrochemical and high energy consuming industries. This poses injustice risk distribution for high PM2.5 pollution areas, as well as low income, low degree of education, and lack of medical resources. The competent authority makes decisions on PM2.5 regulations with deficient trans-boundary risk knowledge. The government even creates boundary-work on high accountability knowledge and maintains a wait-and-see attitude on uncertain knowledge, thus, delaying regulations. Lacking of value ambiguous knowledge and mismatch with the public’s perception result in the collapse of public trust. In terms of national air quality policy, the government has not proposed any strategies or layout plans at a national security level regarding the overall energy, industry, traffic, and social planning of Taiwan. The ignorance of trans-boundary risk knowledge on PM2.5 result in many blind areas of governance; however, the competent authority and government tend to ignore this. When confronting the blind areas of governance, as the competent authority lacks trans-boundary risk knowledge, and inviting or authorizing citizens to take part in control is actually ineffective. The outcome is regulation deadlocks. The government has to face this problem in earnest, and start improvements by addressing trans-boundary risk ignorance, in order to implement PM2.5 trans-boundary risk regulations and promote air quality to protect the health rights of Taiwanese people.