An investigation of Taiwan's education regulations and policies for pursuing environmental sustainability

With the rapid industrialization and economic development in the past decades, heavy environmental loads caused some serious environmental scenarios in Taiwan, an island country with a dense population and only limited natural resources. As a result, environmental education in Taiwan has been a leading tool to promote sustainable development since the 1990s. The central government-level agencies responsible for environmental education in Taiwan, including the Environmental Protection Administrations (EPA), the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Science Council (NSC), began to promulgate regulations on the establishment of an integrated environmental education system. This paper presents the governmental regulations and policies for promoting environmental education in Taiwan. This article also analyzes the success of environmental education through cross-ministerial mechanisms and plans based on the current status of energy sustainability in the past two decades (1990–2009). In June 2011, the Environmental Education Act, which is aimed at upgrading environmental education and achieving sustainable development, will begin to be effective in Taiwan. It is thus prospective that the environmental sustainability will be in line with the education for sustainable development.

► Over the past decade, one of the directions for sustainable development in Taiwan is to promote national sustainable development by fostering environmental education at schools and in communities.
► Under the existing education regulations, there are several universities in Taiwan that are offering different graduate programs related to environmental education and energy-based disciplinary courses.
► In Taiwan, the central government agenciesare currently on the way to sustainable development through environmental education action plans.