Execution effects of the Plan

The statistics data shows that the percentage of days with Air Quality Index (AQI) ≦ 100 (moderate to good air quality) exceeded 93% in 2023 after factoring out the effects of dust storms, and even the number of days with AQI >150 (Unhealthy and Hazardous categories) is 0.5%.

The concentrations of each criterion air pollutant also showed a trend of improvement year by year. The annual average concentration of PM_2.5 presented by manual calibration stations is 13.7 μg/m³ in 2023, and the annual average concentration from ambient auto-monitoring stations of suspended particulates matter (PM₁₀), ozone (O₃), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are 30.3 μg/m³, 30.8 ppb, 1.22 ppb, and 9.4 ppb, respectively, in 2023.

The key achievements of the Plan are as follows:

• The air pollutant emissions are decreased from 38,000 metric tons in 2016 to around 13,000 metric tons in 2022 at Taichung Power Plant, with a reduction ratio of 65%. The emission decreased from 19,000 metric tons in 2016 to around 6,000 metric tons in 2022 at Xing-Da Power Plant, with a reduction ratio of 68%. In addition, the pollution reduction of other government-operated enterprises, such as Chinese Petroleum Corporation, China Steel Corporation, Dragon Steel Corporation, and China Ship Building Corporation, have also continued to be implemented.
• The MOENV cooperated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to conduct subsidies for the improvement of old boilers. In the end of 2023, a total of 7,036 industrial and non-industrial boilers had been improved.
• Statistics from 2017 to 2023, 72,147 heavy-duty diesel vehicles were phased out (including replacement) in phases 1 to 3, compared with 144,000 vehicles in the previous 2016, the number of old vehicles has decreased by more than 50%. According to data, 4,050 diesel vehicles have been phased out in 2023.
• At the end of 2019, there were about 4.74 million older motorcycles. MOENV sets to replace 1.9 million older motorcycles between the periods 2020 to 2023. Statistics to 2023, a total of 2.19 million older, higher-polluting motorcycles have been retired. The achievement rate is about 115%, as well as the accumulated reduction of older motorcycles has exceeded 42%.
• Cooperate with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and relevant ministries to promote the full electrification of urban buses in 2030. In 2020 to 2023, a total of 1,831 electric buses (excluding tour buses) have been approved and subsidized.
• About 200,000 metric tons of spirit money (aka joss paper) is burned every year in Taiwan, and the promoting the centralized burning of spirit money and the subsidy to set up environmental protection spirit money burner are the main improvement measures promoted by the MOENV. The goal is to reduce the burning amount by about 10% (20,000 metric tons). In 2023, the centralized burning of spirit money and environmental friendly sacrifices are reduced the burning amount by a total of 23,000 metric tons.
• The improvement target of small and medium-sized catering industry (cooking oil fumes) is 5,000 in 2020 to 2023. A total of 17,472 restaurants were conducted to improvement, the achievement rate is about 349%.
• In Taiwan, the application area of river bare land control measures is about 2,000 hectares annually. From May 2022 to April 2023, the area under control was 2,035 hectares, and the annual target was achieved. Up to now, from May to December 2023, about 1,712 hectares of bare river land have been controlled.