The World is in Your Hand. Let’s Start with Care:

The discussing meeting of the movie, Home, was held successfully on December 9, 2009.

Policy and Law Center for Environmental Sustainability (PLES) held a movie-watching discussing meeting at the International Conference Hall of Wan-Tsai Building at 2:00 p.m. on December 9, 2009. The movie, Home, was filmed from an eyeshot of the Creator by the well-known photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. PLES hoped that the consideration for the earth would be aroused after the showing of the movie.

    The activity began after the director of PLES, Professor Jiunn-rong Yeh, delivered a welcome. He indicated the importance of signing new conventions to cope with the problems of climate change by quoting the 15^th conference on the parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held at present as proof. He mentioned that the showing of the movie had been expected to bring some new thoughts to people who had practiced or studied law. Professor Jiunn-rong Yeh was the host of the discussing meeting. Professor of College of Live Science of NTU, Ling-ling Lee, and the secretary director of Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Zhuo-han Lee were the guests.

Professor Ling-ling Lee mentioned that we had faced lots of environmental problems, such as the drain on natural resources, the extinction of species, and extensive environmental disasters. However, even in the present conference held in Copenhogen, there were still some people not believing that global warming had become a problem. They thought that the phenomenon had been exaggerated by scientists. Professor Lee also asked participants for their reflections after watching the movie. She stated that the youth had played a crucial role in environmental issues, and UN conference had placed importance on the participation of young people. “People could influence the environment with slight behavior, such as habits of consumption and attitudes to living” she said.

“Being touched by the movie is not enough”, said the secretary director, Zhuo-han Lee. He mentioned that taking actions is the most important part of environmental protection. “Besides individual behavior, policies of the government are the keys of environmental protection and sustainability in one country” he said, “ As the saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power’, the one with knowledge should take heavier responsibility. Lawmakers and executors of policies have to insist on the goal of environmental protection.”

Professor Wen-Chen Chang participated in the activity as well. Continuing with the point of the secretary director, Lee, she revealed that the political figures in Taiwan had still lacked the concern for environmental issues. Take the district and urban areas election held recently as instance, there were no candidates taking environmental issues as their political view. “That was a worrisome phenomenon” Professor Chang said, “It is difficult to arouse the concern for the environment of the people in Taiwan without the government’s promotion.”

Professor Yeh also agreed on the opinion of the secretary director, Lee. He suggested the participants thinking the movie deeply by the special tempo and angles that the photographer had taken. In his perspective, the slow tempo of movie is a contrast to the industrial civilization. The movie intended to show the audiences the beauty and destruction on the earth with its slow pace. As what Professor Lee said, the pictures showed the beauty with sorrow. Professor Yeh mentioned that the movie had showed lots of stunning and worrisome pictures with the voice-over repeating the words: faster and faster, to warn us of the unprecedented disaster of the nature.

Some of participants addressed their reflections on the movie. One of them mentioned that he had thought of the myth, Pandora's Box, when he had seen the picture of the fire enkindled by oil. “Petroleum provides us the convenience and comfort in our lives; however, it also generates the insatiable need for resources” said the student. Another participant provided her perspective that taking actions is meaningful. “We should prepare ourselves for the key moment”, she said.

“It is so special that there are neither ending nor dialogues in the movie” Professor Yeh said,”It is probably because that the film maker hoped that the audiences would have their own dialogues after watching the movie.” In his perspective, the ending of the movie would be created by humankind on the earth. “There is no time to hesitate.” Professor Yeh continued, ”Humans should take the responsibility for our former behavior. We should be not only a person be touched, but also a person to act. The fate of the earth is determined by us. To make things better, we could show consideration for environmental issues as the first pace!”

 PLES held a forum on the drafting of Environmental Liability Law  on Tuesday, September 8. Scholars, officials of government agencies concerned, and  staffs of insurance companies were invited to attend to discuss the drafting of  the environmental liability law. Participants contributed opinions about the draft that are expected to  further the improvement of Taiwan's environmental liability issue.

PLES held two consecutive experts group discussions investigating into the environmental impact assessment system on June 23 and June 26. Scholars and experts were invited to join the discussion on Taiwan’s environmental impact assessment system, with the expectation of a more complete and perfect measures, more understanding of the present condition, and more specific solutions to the problem.

November 15, 2017, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘Inter-American Court’) issued an advisory opinion in which it held that the American Convention on Human Rights (‘ACHR’) recognizes the right to a healthy environment. The Inter-American Court was established under the ACHR in 1979. It has two main functions. Firstly, it can give binding judgments on alleged violations of the ACHR. Secondly, it can give advisory opinions on the interpretation of the rights of the ACHR. Advisory opinions are binding to all Member States of the ACHR.

States Have an Obligation to Prevent Environmental Damage

The Inter-American Court issued the advisory opinion in response to questions of Colombia regarding obligations on the environment under the ACHR. The Inter-American Court found that States that are a party to the ACHR have to protect the right to a healthy environment. The ACHR does not expressly contain such right. However, the Inter-American Court interpreted the general obligation to protect the rights included in the ACHR and the right to life in the light of national and international law on human rights and the environment. Under the ACHR’s right to a healthy environment, States can be held responsible if they do not prevent causing environmental damage, both within and outside their territory. Whenever States plan projects that possibly cause environmental damage, they need to carry out environmental impact assessments, cooperate with States that are possibly affected, and guarantee that citizens have access to environmental information.

Opening the Possibility to Complain about Environmental Damage

The advisory opinion has great significance because it gives individuals and groups of individuals the opportunity to complain before the courts of Member States and the Inter-American Court about violations of the right to a healthy environment in the ACHR. Important is that the advisory opinion stresses that ACHR Member States can also be held responsible if they cause transboundary environmental damage. Consequently, a polluting Member State can be sued if it violates the right to a healthy environment of citizens of a foreign State, irrespective of if this State is an ACHR Member State.

Potential Significance for The Development of Taiwan’s Law

This interpretation of the Inter-American Court of the general obligation to protect the rights included in the ACHR and the right to life can impact the interpretation of these rights included in other international human rights treaties. Treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights contain similar provisions. The monitoring bodies of these treaties may interpret these provisions as containing the right to an environment. This is also important for Taiwan, which has included the articles of various international treaties in its national law. Taiwan therefore would be bound to guarantee the right to an environment if a monitoring body finds such right in the treaty it supervises.

The full advisory opinion can be found at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/opiniones/seriea_23_esp.pdf (Spanish only)

The official summary of the advisory opinion can be found at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/…/opini…/resumen_seriea_23_eng.pdf (English)

Responsible Editor: 
Jeroen van Bekhoven
Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Taiwan University, College of Law

Proofreader: 
Yu-hsiu Joe Hsieh
Graduate Student, National Taiwan University, College of Law

Twenty-four Latin American and Caribbean States have signed the “Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean”. It is based on Principle 10 of the Rio+ 20 Declaration, which was adopted at the Rio+ 20 conference on sustainable development in 2012. Principle 10 stresses the importance of public participation in environmental issues.

ndicator of Environmental Policies

The Environmental Protection Index (EPI) is released every two years by the Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network, together with the World Economic Forum, an international nonprofit organization based in Switzerland. The 2018 EPI ranks 180 countries according to their performance in addressing environmental issues. It is one of the few independent environmental reports that include the separate data for Taiwan. A high EPI score indicates that a country has adopted some successful environmental policies, whereas a low EPI score reveals that a country still has to take important steps to tackle environmental issues. Switzerland leads the world on environmental performance with an overall score of 87.42 on a scale of 0-100, with 0 being the worst, and 100 the best score. The African country of Burundi obtained the lowest overall score, 27.43.

Serious Challenges Persist Despite Improved Environmental Protection

The 2018 EPI notes that the last decade shows a general trend of improvement of environmental protection. Yet, the progress has not been sufficient to achieve key international targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2018 EPI states that weak governance and civil unrest have frustrated efficient environmental policies. The threat of air pollution is particularly worrisome. Air pollution is estimated to cause the early death of around 5 million people worldwide every year. That is one in every ten deaths per year. Although air pollution is a global problem, it is particularly serious in China, India, and Pakistan. The 2018 EPI labels air pollution as a public health crisis in these countries.

Economic Wealth Key to Environmental Performance, but Economic Development Possible Threat

The 2018 EPI’s top 10 is entirely made up of Western developed countries. The first developing country on the 2018 EPI is Trinidad & Tobago, at place 35. The 2018 EPI explains that there is a close relationship between a country’s wealth and its environmental performance. This suggests that a country needs sufficient economic resources to take measures to protect ecosystems and public health. However, economic growth may also cause pollution and threaten ecosystems. The 2018 EPI stresses that good governance is needed to balance the tension.

Gap in 2018 EPI Scores in Asia

Japan is the best performing Asian country, with a 20th place overall. Taiwan comes in second in Asia, at place 23. Singapore completes the Asian top 3, at place 49. Bangladesh is the worst performing Asian country, at the bottom of the 2018 EPI at position 179. India did not perform much better and is ranked 177th. Nepal is just one place above, at place 176. China can be found at the 120th place, before Thailand. The 2018 EPI notes that in Asia, the EPI scores vary greatly. It attributes this to the wide differences in economic development between the Asian countries. The wealthy Asian countries have better overall EPI scores than the poor Asian countries.

Taiwan among Environmental Top Performers, but Persisting Major Concerns

Taiwan has an overall EPI score of 72.84. Indicating that it has boosted its environmental performance over the last decade. Noticeably however, Taiwan continues to struggle with worsening air quality, a global problem. Other causes for concern in Taiwan are the ongoing loss of forests and the use of contaminating fertilizers by the agricultural sector.

For the full 2018 Environmental Performance Index and detailed data and explanations, please consult:

https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/2018-epi-report/introduction

Executive summary: https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/2018-epi-report/executive-summary

Taiwan’s 2018 EPI: https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-country-report/TWN

Responsible Editor: Jeroen van Bekhoven

Post-doctoral Fellow, National Taiwan University, College of Law

 The National Science Council, Executive Yuan published the "2011 Taiwan Scientific Report on Climate Change” with the purpose of establishing a systematic scientific impact assessment of climate change on Taiwan. Five key issues are covered in the report, including the climate change trend in Taiwan in the context of global climate change, the relationship between climate change and severe weather, the relationship between climate change and abnormal weather, the connection between climate change and the recent disasters in Taiwan, and the credibility of the climate change assessment of Taiwan.    
    According to the report, the temperature in Taiwan will keep rising up with the global warming phenomenon, increasing by 2 to 3 Celsius degrees by the end of the 21st Century. As to the rainfall in the future, it is highly possible that rainfall days will decrease but the intensity of precipitation will increase greatly. It is predictable that precipitation will be excessive in the rain season and poorly insufficient in the dry season, which might cause catastrophes such as floods and draughts. This assessment shows that in the future, flood control and water management will be a huge challenge to the government.

On Oct. 20^th, 2011, Taiwan and China, in the 7^th round high-level cross-strait talks, signed the Cross-Strait Agreement on Nuclear Power Safety Cooperation aimed at establishing the nuclear power security information exchange system, the nuclear accident report mechanism and the information disclosure system on nuclear power security cross the strait. The details of the agreement include the scope and content of the cooperation, contactors, agendas, document forms, implementation and amendment to the agreement, dispute-resolution mechanisms as well as signature and entry into force…etc. On Oct. 27^th, the Executive Yuan approved the agreement and submitted it to the Legislative Yuan for record according to the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.
        Environmental groups, however, had different opinions on the agreement. Due to the close connection between nuclear weapon and nuclear energy, they insisted that  the agreement shall include nuclear weapon issues and the international impact and responding measures of nuclear accidents. In addition, they claimed that based on the Basic Environment Act, Taiwan shall set its agenda to gradually become a nuclear-free country, which shall be noted in the agreement as a basic understanding of Taiwan’s nuclear industry policy.