Government agencies last year successfully hit Cabinet-set standards on the purchase of environmentally-friendly products, according to the Environmental Protection Administration yesterday.
The Cabinet marked out 27 products commonly used in government offices, including computers, stationary and air-conditioners, and set agencies the goal of spending at least 50 percent of the budgets allocated for these resources on environmentally-friendly goods.
According to EPA statistics released yesterday, the government last year spent NT$2.65 billion on environmentally-friendly products listed by the Cabinet, accounting for 65.6 percent of the total.
The statistics also showed that 29 out of 36 Cabinet-subordinate agencies and 23 out of 25 counties and cities reached the 50-percent goal.
"The government's attempts to promote green consumption will further broaden the market for green purchasers," Ke Chih-hung (
The Atomic Energy Council, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and the National Science Council were the worst performers in the Cabinet initiative with 12.93, 29.07 and 30.36 percent of their allocated budgets spent on environmentally-friendly products respectively.
Ke said that eight more products will be added to the Cabinet's list next year in order to boost payments for environmental-friendly products up to NT$5 billion.
The eight items will include office photo copiers and notebook computers.
Ke said that green purchasing was heavily promoted by the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development -- held last year in Johannesburg, South Africa -- by encouraging governments to develop public-purchasing policies that promote environmental-friendly products and services in action plans.
According to Yu Ning (于寧), president of the Environmental and Development Foundation the establishment of a green-purchasing alliance composed of governmental officials and representatives of private companies would be the next step in promoting the adoption of green products.
"Through joining the alliance, the concept of green consumption will be transferred from the government to the private sector," Yu said.
Yu said, however, that the recent recession made it more difficult to promote environmental-friendly products, the prices of which are higher than non-green products.
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