Sustainable Development in Taiwan

I. Foreword

Globalization, technology development and green revolution are the three major forces that will likely cause significant impact to the world in the 21st century. Due to the increased transboundary movement of people, goods, capital and information, the formation of a boundary-less global community is accelerated, which in turn facilitates the flow of resources to the most competitive countries or regions.

The traditional definition of competitiveness is a measurement of values and quantities. This definition, however, has been changed to the measurement of competition in creativity and speed, to suit more appropriately in this current environment. Therefore, in order to raise national competitiveness, increase corporate efficiency, strengthen capacity building and attract talents, many countries are adopting policies and measures to improve their cultural and living quality and strengthen public infrastructure.

In decades past, Taiwan's emphasis on economic development has created significant negative impact to Taiwan's environment. In order to ameliorate this situation, tremendous amount of efforts are required to control industrial pollution, improve environmental quality, prevent loss of land and eco-systems, and conserve biodiversity. Hence, Taiwan is in urgent need to balance economic development and environmental protection, and improve living quality and ecological environment, in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development. With this in mind, the Executive Yuan of the ROC government included a large section on "Water and Green Infrastructure Plan" in the Challenge 2008 National Development Plans. The objectives of the Infrastructure Plan are to restore Taiwan's natural environment and create a model sub-tropical, insular eco-system. It includes the following five programs: (1) Planning and utilization of water resource; (2) Restoration and re-creation of land; (3) Development of renewable energy; (4) Construction of sanitary sewers; and (5). Green construction. Also included in the plan are measures to promote green industry, increase resource utilization efficiency, establish environmental technology incubation centers, improve transportation infrastructure to shorten the gap between urban and rural areas, and improve living quality through integrated community efforts.

Though not a member of the United Nations, Taiwan is fully committed to comply with relevant multilateral environmental agreements and serve as a bridge in transferring development experience from developed countries to developing countries, in order to fulfill its responsibility as an inhabitant of the global village.

II. Responsible Organization

The National Council for Sustainable Development under the Executive Yuan (the executive branch of the Taiwan ROC government) provides policy making and advisory functions to all sustainable development related activities in Taiwan. The Premier and the Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan serve as the chairman and the vice-chairman of the Council respectively. Such appointment reflects the determination of the ROC government to pursue sustainable development.

III. Major Sustainable Development Activities in Taiwan after the 1992 Earth Summit

National Environmental Protection Plan
The Plan was promulgated by the Executive Yuan in February of 1998. It includes quantitative indicators and specific targets to be achieved for the years 2001, 2006, and 2011, in the areas of environmental quality, pollution abatement and environmental management.

Taiwan Agenda 21
Taiwan Agenda 21 was approved by the National Council for Sustainable Development of the Executive Yuan in May, 2000. It includes 5 chapters as follows:

	Sustainable Environment Atmosphere, water resources, land resources, biodiversity, and environmental management
	Sustainable Society Population & health, residential environment, social welfare, cultural heritage, and disaster prevention & response
	Sustainable Economy Economic development, industrial development, transportation development, energy strategy, and resource re-utilization
	Development Motivations Education development, science and technology development, and information-based society
	Promotion Mechanisms Public participation, government re-structuring, and international cooperation

Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Biodiversity
Taiwan's Biodiversity Action Plan was approved by the Executive Yuan in August, 2001. It includes the following strategies to promote biodiversity:

	Strengthen national mechanisms to promote biodiversity work;
	Reinforce management of biodiversity;
	Fortify research and sustainable use of biodiversity;
	Strengthen education, training and full citizen participation in conserving biodiversity;
	Promote national and international partnerships in conserving biodiversity.

Climate Change
Taiwan has adopted the following "no-regret" policies and measures in mitigating global climate change effects:

	Strive to be recognized as a "newly developed industrialized country";
	Establish emissions baselines and analytical model for the estimation of economic growth and emissions reduction costs;
	Promote energy conservation, improve energy efficiency, and develop clean fuel and new energy technology;
	Incorporate assessment of CO2 emissions into environmental impact assessment of major development activities;
	Pursue balanced development of high-tech industries, traditional industries, and industrial structure;
	Strengthen cleaner production and conservation of natural resources.

Ozone Layer Protection
The consumption of ozone depleting CFCs in Taiwan has been reduced to zero since 1996. The efforts to reduce the use of HCFCs for cleaning and foaming purposes have also been initiated, with a reduction target of 35% set for 2004. The reduction target for HCFCs used for refrigerant purpose will also be in effect in 2010.

Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes
The "Hazardous Industrial Wastes Export, Import, Transit, and Transshipment Management Measures" promulgated in May, 1996, and the "Amendments of Waste Disposal Act" enacted in October 2001, both regulate and control the export, import, transit, and transshipment of hazardous wastes.

Taiwan has established an Internet transboundary shipment reporting system, and published a hazardous wastes identification manual for use by the customs officials in their waste identification efforts. Currently, it is in the process of establishing final waste disposal facilities, and it will also strengthen waste auditing, and establish emergency measures and compensation mechanism.

VI. Major Achievements

Corporate Green Competitiveness

Taiwan started to encourage and provide assistance to private sector's pollution control efforts in the 1980s, in order to improve the overall corporate competitiveness. Since then, the government's action in this area can be divided into several stages. In 1988, the Waste Minimization Program was initiated, which was followed by the promotion of environmental management system certification scheme in 1995. At present, the government is working on a plan to strengthen the corporate "green productivity."

Since the 1980s, the scope of the corporations involved in these efforts have been expanded from mainly manufacturing sector in the past to presently include all sectors; and the objectives of the involved corporations have also been elevated from seeking legal compliance in the 1980s to the present pursuit of voluntary environmental management which exceeds legal limits.

Green Consumption

Taiwan has implemented two types of measures in order to change consumers' lifestyle and improve products' environmental performance. In the area of lifestyle change, major results can be seen in the incorporation of environmental awareness into school education curricula, and implementation of garbage reduction, sorting, recycling and reuse program; in the area of environmental performance of products, the successful implementation of Green Mark eco-labeling program and the government green procurement scheme have effectively resulted in improved product environmental performance. Furthermore, the "Joint-purchasing Scheme" promoted by several non-governmental organizations and various voluntary environmental promotion activities implemented over the years have also served to change the consumers' consumption pattern and lifestyle.

Sustainable Taiwan Indicator System

This system divides Taiwan into two parts: island Taiwan and urban Taiwan, and employs 83 and 28 indicators respectively to measure the sustainability of Taiwan, with regard to environmental protection, ecological resources, social pressure, economic pressure, and system response.

Green Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Green GDP is based on "social accounting" which integrates environmental and economic indices, and deducts the amounts of resource consumption and environmental quality degradation from GDP, to truly reflect the personal income after considerations of environmental and ecological balance.

Since June 1998, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics of the Executive Yuan has adopted the United Nations SEEA system in the preparation of green GDP statistics. Based on the 1997-1999 statistics, the degradation of natural resources and environmental quality takes up about 2.5% of Taiwan's GDP.

Inventory of Biological Resources in Taiwan

In order to understand and better promote biodiversity in Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan has compiled the data gathered from its surveys over the years, and established the Biological Resource Survey Scheme and Taiwan Biological Resource Database which contains over 300,000 entries. In conjunction with the use of digital map from the Forestry Bureau, the database will be able to display the spatial distribution and status of biological species in Taiwan for public examination.