Taichung City was awarded by Environmental Protection Agency the Outstanding Prize for 2012 "air quality maintenance and improvement performance appraisal" and the Excellence Prize for "performance evaluation for local environmental protection authorities" together with prize money of NT$1 million.

Liu Bang-yu (劉邦裕), Director-general of Environmental Protection Bureau, said “We have been implementing a variety of environmental control measures, including the buildup of air quality zone for Taichung Harbor & mobile sources (that is, diesel vehicles), the replacement of old gasoline vehicles, and the tightening of emission standards for the power industry and the steel industry. All these innovative programs have achieved very good results and Taichung City are thus honored with the Outstanding Prize for ‘national air quality maintenance and improvement appraisal’ in the special municipality group. Moreover, our Environmental Protection Bureau won the Excellent Prize for ‘performance evaluation for local environmental protection authorities’. We have made a big progress from Level A in 2011 to Excellent Prize in 2012, thanks to the efforts of our colleagues in the Environmental Protection Bureau. I also would like to thank our citizens for their cooperation and support.”

Director-general Liu added, “To effectively control the air pollution sources, we have been tightening the CO2 emission standards for the power industryand the steel industry, implementing stricter permit review and verification for the stationary pollution sources (that is, factories), subsidizing the replacement of obsolete mobile sources (that is, diesel vehicles and cars and motorcycles), and checking the control equipment for escaping sources (that is, the food and beverage industry and gas stations). Judging from the air quality monitoring data, we had only 13 poor days in terms of air quality in 2012, accounting for 0.71%. It has been the best record in Taichung City since the setup of air quality monitoring stations. In 2013, Taichung City will be re-classified and upgraded from class 3 control area (an area that does not meet air quality standards) to class 2 control area (an area that meets air quality standards) for its suspended particulate matters and ozone control. Our teams at the Environmental Protection Bureau vows to work hard to be more successful and live up to the expectations of our citizens.”