Taiwan ranked 29th out of 132 nations in this year’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a report by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network, the Environmental Protection Administration said.
Taiwan had ranked 24th among 133 nations in the 2006 EPI and 40th out of 149 nations in the 2008 EPI, the agency said, and this year’s ranking of No. 29 surpassed the performance of nations such as Canada (37), South Korea (43), Australia (48), the US (49), Singapore (52) and China (116).
According to the report, Switzerland ranked No. 1 in overall performance, followed by Latvia and Norway, while Costa Rica (5) is the only non-European country to make the top 10 performers.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan gained high scores and ranked No. 1 in three categories: air quality-effects on human health, water-effects on human health and forests.
According to the report, the forest category included three indicators — forest growing stock (the standing volume of the trees in a forest), forest cover change and forest loss. Taiwan obtained high scores in all three assessments.
However, the nation ranked relatively low in categories such as agriculture (103) and climate change (110).
The agency said the low scores were because of low agriculture subsidies, high carbon dioxide emissions and a low percentage of electricity generated by renewable energy, which measures renewable electricity production as a percentage of total electricity production.
High carbon dioxide emissions were caused by the dense population throughout the nation and growth in the business and industrial sectors, the agency said, adding that efforts by the government and the public to slow down global warming and fight climate change had contributed to a 4.1 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in 2008 and a 4.3 percent reduction in 2009.
Although Taiwan ranked 68th in sulfur dioxide emissions, the average amount emitted per person each year has decreased from 13.71kg in 2005 to 10.72kg in 2005, the agency said.
The agency said it would strengthen controls on industrial and vehicle emissions, as well as promote low-pollution cars to reduce sulfur dioxide emission.
In addition, the agency said although the government has already limited or banned the use of persistent organic pollutants listed by the Stockholm Convention, Taiwan is still unable to sign the convention because to the nation’s current international political position.
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