A new milestone was achieved in Taiwan’s environmental monitoring work and international cooperation. On 2nd August 2022, the EPA announced its cooperation with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to establish a mercury wet deposition monitoring station. Therefore, Australia became the 16th partner country in the Indo-Pacific region of Asia Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN).

On August 2, 2022, the EPA announced its cooperation with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to establish a mercury wet deposition monitoring station at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory using a Taiwan-made instrument. The cooperation ceremony was attended by Director Dr. Daniel J. Metcalfe of Oceans and Atmosphere at CSIRO, Assistant Administrator Jane Nishida of the US EPA, Director General Wallace M.G. Chow of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and Deputy Representative Ken Wei-chung Lai of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia. Deputy Representative Mr Michael Googan of the Australian Office received a model of the instrument on behalf of CSIRO representing the cooperation. The Oceans and Atmosphere Group at CSIRO is the largest government-supported atmospheric chemistry academic center in Australia and is renowned in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force in 2017. The Taiwan EPA and the US EPA initiated the Asia Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN), in 2012, with support from the MOFA. One major objective of the APMMN is to assist countries in the Indo-Pacific region to develop their mercury monitoring and assessment capacities. Currently, the APMMN is operated by the National Central University and has 15 partner countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia, as the final piece of the puzzle, has become the 16th partner country of the now-complete APMMN.

This ceremony highlighted Taiwan EPA’s goodwill toward international cooperation, and the need for the international community to strengthen the mercury monitoring capacity in the Southern Hemisphere and the Indo-Pacific region. With the new monitoring station in Australia’s Northern Territory, the Taiwan and US EPA’s will deepen cooperation with Australia’s CSIRO to provide new insights into mercury emissions in the region as we work together to reduce mercury in the atmosphere and protect the environment.

Minister Chang, Tzi-Chin presented a wet mercury sampler model to the CSIRO, and Deputy Representative Mr. Michael Googan of the Australian Office received the model on behalf of CSIRO.

Minister Chang, Tzi-Chin, Deputy Representative Mr. Googan of the Australian Office, Director General Chow, Minn-Gan of the Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, MOFA, and Executive Director, and Science & Technology Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia Lin, Ho were taken a group photo with physically participants.

Excerpt from Major Environmental Policies, September 2022