Suing Smog: Kaohsiung's Fight for Breathable Air
by Citizens of the Earth, Taiwan · HQ 🇹🇼 Taiwan
Citizens of the Earth, Taiwan grew out of the country's most industrially polluted city, Kaohsiung, and became Taiwan's first environmental foundation funded entirely through public donations rather than government or corporate money. Its campaigning helped force the 2015 closure of state-run CPC's No. 5 Naphtha Cracker after 28 years of community protest, halted two coal-fired units at Dalin Power Plant, and pushed for reform of Taiwan's air quality index and pollution caps. With the civic-tech group g0v it co-built the Disfactory reporting platform, through which citizens flagged 2,511 suspected illegal farmland factories fouling air and water between 2020 and 2022, with 706 cases formally submitted by CET to authorities leading to 12 confirmed demolitions.