The Environmental Education Act is formulated to promote environmental education, assist citizens to understand the interaction of individuals and society with the environment, and enhance the environmental awareness, environmental ethics, and responsibility of the nation taking as a whole, so as to safeguard the ecological balance of the environment, respect lives, promote social justice, and cultivate environmental citizens and environmental learning communities in order to achieve sustainable development.

The competent agency the act refers to is the Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan on the central government level; the central-ruled municipal governments at a central-ruled municipality; a county (municipal) government at a county (municipal) municipality.
The matters stipulated in this Law that involve the duty of the central industry competent authority should be handled by the central industry competent authorities.

A glossary of definitions the act adopts is defined as follows,
1. Environmental education: Referring to the adaptation of educational means by　which to culminate the citizens to understand their ethnical relationship to the environment, enhance the citizens’ environmental protection awareness, skills, attitudes and values, and steer the citizens to emphasize the environment and adopt actions to achieve a civility education process that harbors sustainable　development.
2. Environmental education entities: Referring to what the competent central government authorities have certified of agencies (institutions), enterprises or organizations for staging the environmental education personnel training or environmental seminars.
3. Environmental protection laws and self-governance acts:
(1) Referring to what the competent central government authorities had enacted of environmental protection-related laws.
(2) What the central-ruled municipalities, and county (municipal) municipalities have been authorized for enacting environmental protection-related self-governance acts as per the self governance measures, or as per the laws and regulations, or as per the higher laws and regulations.

Environmental education subjects encompass the entire citizenry, various organizations, enterprises, government agencies (institutions) and school districts.