Taiwan Leading the Way in Green Economy

TAIWAN is one of the global leaders in innovation and technological advancement, highlighted by its dominance in the semiconductor industry, supplying many giant technology brands, or a robust 68% market share.

However, it is not lost on the Taiwan government the importance of protecting Mother Nature amid blazing-speed technological progress. Taiwan is considered a long-standing champion in protecting the environment through various collective and collaborative initiatives within Taiwan-based companies, with its many partners around the world.

On June 19, 2024, Taiwan’s leading foreign trade officials, particularly the Taiwan International Trade Administration (TITA) and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), launched the “Go Green with Taiwan” movement, a global initiative for groups or individuals to come up with environmental and economic sustainability project concepts that will implement Taiwan green industry solutions while fostering technological relevance.

Not just environmental but economic

From a collective standpoint, addressing and ultimately solving critical global issues such as climate change, including other topics like the imbalance of raw materials, healthcare advancements, and social injustice cannot be done simply by coming up with solutions focused only on clean or “green” energy and water reusability.

“The challenge in the global economy is going beyond green energy with a necessity to redesign the economic model to make it more sustainable,” explains Charles Huang, Chairman of the Circular Taiwan Network or CTN, whose vision is to make circular economy a part of daily life in Taiwan and to make Taiwan a leader in the global circular economy movement.

Huang lamented that going “green” means dealing with environmental and economic issues. He reiterated that calling for furthering a comprehensive “circular economy,” an economic system that reuses and regenerates materials in a sustainable or environmentally friendly way. Though largely deemed as environmental, there is much more than meets the eye for the circular economy.

“The focus should shift from the aspect of buying and selling green products to essentially redesigning the economic model, which involves moving away from privatizing benefits and externalizing costs towards a more neutral and inclusive approach.”

Huang pointed out that a circular economy is “regenerative, inclusive, and restorative,” a model where waste is removed from the ecosystem since waste, which Huang calls a byproduct of the industrial revolution, is an unknown and misplaced resource.

However, despite gaining ground in terms of popularity, the circular economy concept requires more collaborative work worldwide. According to the Circularity Gap Report of 2024, “discussions, debates and articles about the concept almost tripled in the last five years,” a clear reflection of increasing awareness.

Taiwan continues to showcase to the world how it cares for Mother Nature with impressive solutions like the Energy Exploration efforts of developing new and alternative energy sources such as solar energy, wind power, hydropower, biomass energy, hydrogen energy, and a whole lot more, to reduce dependence on polluting energy sources.

Taiwan also provides extensive support in research and development, manufacturing, and application of energy-saving technologies to reduce energy consumption by raising efficiency, through the use of power-saving systems, energy conservation architecture, energy-efficient household appliances, optimized manufacturing operation technologies, Energy Management Systems, and others that cover the industrial, architecture, transportation, and agriculture sectors.

Also, the country is already developing and providing low-carbon transportation solutions such as electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, intelligent transportation management systems, ride-sharing services, and implementing urban planning policies for sustainable transportation development which ultimately help lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

Other than those mentioned above, Taiwan pushes for establishing Green Materials industry where it manufactures, develops, and provides green materials that are bio-based and recycled from renewable resources and can be applied in a variety of sectors like construction, packaging, transportation, energy, and electronics sector.

Another green economy model is Taiwan’s Environmental Equipment industry which focuses on the development, manufacturing, and provision of equipment and solutions that can reduce environmental pollution and conserve relevant energy and resources. Solutions like air and water treatment equipment, facilities for solid-waste management and treatment, and renewable energy instruments, among others.

Taiwan is also leading the way to a global circular economy by “walking the talk,” using three guiding principles in its implementation. One is the high-value utilization of resources by redesigning elements like material sources, product design, and material flow to optimize resource usage and minimize waste throughout the entire system.

The second principle involves redefining business models, like adopting the “Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)” model, where producers retain product ownership and offer services to customers to avoid product uselessness and promote both economic profit and resource circularity.

Third, Taiwan believes that no single country or company can achieve resource circularity or tackle the climate crisis alone. It believes that through circular collaboration, the seamless interconnection of material, information, knowledge, and financial flow is enhanced and then facilitates the emergence of circular ideas and businesses, where the focus is shifted from a manufacturing-oriented to a service / knowledge-oriented value network, which is universally beneficial to the economies and humanity.

Go Green with Taiwan

As a global initiative to encourage creatively innovative project concepts that focus on using Taiwan’s green products and solutions, fostering technological cooperation in environmental and economic sustainability, “Go Green with Taiwan” is a symbol of the country’s staunch commitment to empower the green economy, with the world.

With this effort, Taiwan is serious about achieving a sustainable future, with the hopes of imbibing green consciousness and habits among the people by showcasing the eco-conscious disciplines of Taiwanese companies in a true display of collective action. For more information on “Go Green with Taiwan,” visit https://gogreen.taiwanexcellence.org/