風險社會與政策研究中心 - [Event Review] Fubon Globalization Forum

: 04 July 2017; Hits: 18432

[Event Review] Fubon Globalization Forum - I Breathe, I Decide

I Breathe, I Decide.

Mu-Xing Forrest Lin, Assistant Research Fellow, RSPRC

Chien-Ming Hsu, Assistant Research Fellow, RSPRC

Do not let your lungs become air cleaners! 2017 Fubon Globalization Forum—I Breathe, I Decide is the event bring you and me together as a member of a globalized world's citizen to fight against air pollution and react to climate change. At the critical moments of climate change and air pollution governance in Taiwan, this public lectures series are sponsored by Fubon Financial and co-organised by RSPRC, College of Social Sciences, NTU and Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation. On the turning point of the global development of climate change, business and academic research centre have the chance to build up social cohesion and consensus, promoting energy transformation and social transformation, the change of paradigm.

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2017 Fubon Globalization Forum was held on May 27 at the Liang-Kuo Shu International Conference Centre, NTU. Despite it was the first day of the holidays of Dragon Boat Festival, it was enthusiastically attended by the members of the public. Due to the situation, the lecture was broadcasted in real time on the Internet; with the live stream, the additional sitting area was also provided in another conference room. Special thanks to the team of the Department of Public Administration, NCCU. With their support of text-broadcast, the event was possible to be attended by the online audiences. The lecture started with an opening speech contributed by Ching-Ray Chang, the Vice President of the NTU. He hoped such events can draw more attention from the public to the issues of air pollution governance, an important issue in a globalised world, and show the vitality of Taiwanese civil society.

The lecture was divided into two sessions. The morning session was the keynote speech contributed by Prof. Ortwin Renn, Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS); he is an eminent scholar in the international risk governance circle. His topic was 'Citizen Participation in Response to Climate Change - Theory and Practice', discussing the importance and mechanism of citizen participation in climate change. This was followed by a discussion panel and joined by Prof. Kuei-Tien Chou, the Director of RSPRC, the founder of DOMI Green Energy Tammy Hsu and the Deputy Secretary – General of Green Citizens' Action Alliance, Mr Hong.

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Professor Renn started with a stress on that today's talk is not just about climate change, but the role citizens can play in the transformation, referring to the three models of global governance —the issues of participation and deliberation. On the one hand, there is a need calling for analytical expertise to assist the deliberation, the call for 'good science'. On the other, different interests should also be taken into consideration. The next, DOMI Green Energy's Tammy Hsu shared her experience on relating social issues and how to build B-type enterprises that are helpful to a society. The final contributor is Mr Hong of GCAA. He drew on the experience of the engagement of social movement, sharing the experience and challenges facing in Taiwan's civil movement. He thinks today in the government there are no internal driving forces to facilitate transformation. The external pressure, the strength of civil society is still very relevant. Prof. Chou summarised the discussion with a call for the general public's participation in imagining the future, the transformation.

In the afternoon, Prof. Gwen Ottinger, Department of Political Science, Drexel University, U.S., gave a lecture entitled 'Information Infrastructure for Environmental Justice'. This session was chaired by Prof., Chang-Chuan Chan, the Vice President of the College of Public Health, NTU. He also joined in the talks. The main theme of this presentation was about the 'information Infrastructure' which constitutes of the acknowledged 'information collection' and the 'tools of Interpretation', and they are both embedded in the 'catalogue system'. The Infrastructure should empower marginalised communities' capacity to understand and communicate their own experience of perceived pollution. Prof. Chan, in response to Prof. Ottinger, took the experience of Formosa Plastics Corp's (FPC) sixth naphtha cracker complex as an example to share Taiwan's experience in dealing with air pollution incident in Taiwan. He concluded that the epidemiological causality between specific pollutants and residents' suffering is established, however, the government does not necessarily acknowledge this direct connection. In this situation, society can feel and experience more, but when the action should be taken is not taken, society must have more discussion.

Following the background of Taiwan in Transition, the last session was a public symposium which focused on how citizens' science can help us to tackle air pollution governance. This includes the invitation to scholars and social actors to build 'a new vision for Taiwan's energy transformation' and the construction of a network of cooperation among changing agents. Together we can pave the road of Taiwan's transformation.

In addition to the previous two speakers, Prof. Renn and Prof. Ottinger, this session was also joined by Hung-Teh Tsai, the Director of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Division, EPA, Prof. Ben-Jei Tsuang, the Department of Environmental Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, the organizer of Location Aware Sensing System (LASS), Mr. Wu-Long Xu, and Min-Ling Wang, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan. This session was chaired by Prof. Wen-Ling Tu, the Department of Public Administration, NCCU.

In this conclusion panel, EPA's Director Tsai agreed that civil groups have the right to stress on the perspectives of public health of air pollution and the EPA should also move towards a regular discussion with civil groups on the relevant issues. Prof. Renn responded to the question of monitoring information and said it was important that the information should be made available to all parties, providing factual information to enhance mutual trust. Deputy Chief Executive Wang argued the reveal of the information of harmful air pollutants is good, but because of the delayed release of information, the delayed regulatory standards on the factories established years ago and the fact that the people in the central and southern Taiwan have exposed to the pollution, there is an urgent need to establish an exit mechanism to these polluting factories. Prof. concluded that many of discussions of the day are about air pollution governance and citizen's participation in the governance process, indicating people have a great expectation of the results.

Finally, Prof. Chou wrapped up the event with a summary pointing that the regulatory scheme of air pollution in Taiwan was established too late, and the governance and regulatory science need to be further integrated. The transformation is not only the job the government needs to do but also a responsibility shared by us, the citizens. We need to be confident in our country and the democracy of Taiwan is the power to push on the reform. The Fubon Globalisation Lectures invited German, American scholars, governmental representatives and Taiwan non-governmental organisations, social enterprises and the general public together brainstorming. A total of more than 200 people participated in the event and everyone called for I Breathe, I Decide.

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