我們在世界村中的哪一個位置？：台灣地區環境永續性指數之計算及分析

WHERE ARE WE IN THE EARTH VILLAGE? － CALCULATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX SCORES OF TAIWAN

「永續發展指標」或「永續性指標」近年來已成為環境相關研究與行動方案中之一重要課題。然而，雖然各國積極開發適用於各國或區域的永續性指標，但一直缺乏一受國際社會接受，並而進行跨國比較的以國家為評量單位的指標系統。世界經濟論壇等組織，基於跨國環境永續性比較之必要性，於近年來提出「環境永續性指數」（ESI）之架構，以進行跨國比較，並研究環境永續性與若干重要經濟指標間之相關性。然而，由於我國許多環境資料庫並未積極與國際社會接軌，在2000至2002連續三年的ESI評比中，均未將我國列入。因此，本研究蒐集相關資料，求取2001與2002年台灣的ESI分數，並與其他國家比較。計算結果顯示，我國在2001年之ESI分數在全球列入排行的123個國家中居於第58名；在2002年則在全球列入排行的143國中列名第119名。與我國經濟競爭力指數向來維持在全球20名左右的良好表現相對照，我國在提昇環境永續性方面仍有待努力。此外，由於亞洲國家在歷年的ESI排行中，表現均不甚理想，因此本文亦對於此一現象，進行統計分析與原因的探討。

Sustainable development indicators/indices and 'sustainability indicators/indices' have become one of the most important research issues in the area of environmental studies in recent years. Such indicators have been developed and applied in different nations and regions. However, there has not been an indicator system that is widely accepted by the international community and based on which cross-national comparisons can be performed. Thus, the World Economic Forum and other organizations proposed an 'Environmental Sustainability Index' (ESI) framework for carrying out relatively objective comparisons among countries and also studying the correlations between its score and some economic performances. Unfortunately, because the environmental databases in Taiwan were not enough internationalized, Taiwan was not included in the ESI lists. Thus, data were collected and processed to obtain the ESI scores for Taiwan in 2001 and 2002. Results showed that, with Taiwan included in the country list, Taiwan had a rank of 58 in 123 countries and that of 119 in 143 countries in 2001 and 2002, respectively. On the other hand, as Taiwan has been performing very well in economy that Taiwan's ranks for the national Current Competitiveness Index have been kept around 20 for many years, Taiwan should emphasize environmental issues in the future to make its environmental performance analogous to its economic performance. Moreover, as it was also observed that the ESI scores of Asian countries were commonly low, statistical analysis was performed and the possible reasons were also examined.