Exploration of sustainable development by applying green economy indicators

Following the global trend of sustainable development, development of green economy is the best way of slowing the negative ecological and environmental impact. This research establishes the Taiwan’s green economic indicators based on the ecological footprint and energy analysis. The results are as follows: Taiwan’s ecological footprint in 2008 intensity index was at 4.364; ecological overshoot index was at 3.364, showing that Taiwan’s ecological system is in overload state. Moreover, this study utilizes energy analysis model to study the sustainable development of Taiwan. Findings showed that total energy use in 2008 was 3.14 × 1023 sej (solar energy joule, sej), energy of renewable resources was 1.30 × 1022 sej, energy of nonrenewable resources was 2.26 × 1023 sej, energy of products from renewable resources was 1.30 × 1022sej, energy of currency flow was 8.02 × 1022 sej and energy of wastes flow was 6.55 × 1022 sej. Taiwan’s energy per capita and the utilization rate of energy is lower while the environmental loading rate is significantly higher comparing to some other countries. The foregoing findings indicate that Taiwan currently belongs to an economic development pattern based on high resource consumption. The economic development is mainly established on the exploitation and utilization of nonrenewable resources. Therefore, Taiwan should change the development pattern, regulate the industrial structure, promote the utilization rate of resources, develop green pollution-free products, and enhance the sustainable development of ecological economic system.