To build consensus between central and local environmental protection authorities on the review and verification of engineer-certified environmental permit documents and to strengthen the enforcement commitment of environmental protection partners, the Ministry of Environment (MOENV) held the “2025 Consensus Camp on Engineer-Certified Environmental Permit Documents and Awards Ceremony for Outstanding Contributors to Environmental Crime Investigations.” on Oct. 21. The event brought together representatives from the Public Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan, local environmental protection agencies, members of engineer document-verification committees, professional engineer associations, and practicing engineers. The workshop was chaired by Deputy Minister Chih-Hsiu Shen, who also presented awards to recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to environmental crime investigations.

In his remarks, Shen emphasized that a robust environmental pollution prevention system relies on the coordinated efforts of both front-end professional engineers and back-end enforcement personnel. Practicing engineers at the front end are responsible for technical assessments and risk judgment, while environmental enforcement officers at the back-end conduct inspections and carry out law enforcement. Through effective linkage and collaboration between these two pillars, they jointly build an environmental pollution prevention network. The event specially invited recipients of commendations from Premier Cho Jung-tai of the Executive Yuan in April 2025 for their achievements in investigating environmental crimes, and awards were presented to express respect and gratitude.

The MOENV noted that engineers’ professional practice is closely related to public life, property and safety, and therefore carries heightened duties of care and professional responsibility. To promote professional self-discipline and ensure accountability in practice, the consensus workshop specially invited Mr. Yi-chang Chen, Senior Technical Specialist of the Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan, to deliver a keynote presentation titled “Engineer Disciplinary Case Studies.” The aim was to remind practicing engineers to adhere strictly to professional ethics and continuously improve the quality of their professional practice.

In accordance with environmental regulations, factories and facilities that reach a certain scale or are newly established must have their environmental permit applications endorsed by a professional engineer before being reviewed and approved by local environmental protection authorities. Accordingly, the event arranged briefings and exchanges by the Department of Atmospheric Environment, Department of Water Quality Protection, and the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund Management Board of the Environmental Management Administration.

The MOENV emphasized that professional engineers are the first critical line of defense in pollution prevention systems. To ensure the quality of professional engineer endorsements, the ministry will continue to work with local environmental protection authorities nationwide to commission teams of experts and scholars each year to review engineer-endorsed environmental permit documents for technical feasibility and regulatory compliance. At the same time, the MOENV will regularly organize outreach sessions, forums and consensus workshops to gather feedback from all sectors and continuously refine the professional engineer endorsement system to strengthen pollution prevention effectiveness and achieve the goal of environmental sustainability.