Compared with the similar indicators applied to illustrate the country’s environmental sustainability in 2006, the report indicates that 15 of 41 indicators moved away from sustainability in 2007.

They include the carbon dioxide emission amount, water resources, garbage output per capita, the volume of public pollution petitions under government management and the pesticide consumption percentage of agricultural output in a year.

Other indicators featuring the death rate from cancer, the percentage of the central government’s general budget for environmental protection and biological preservation, as well as the urban electricity consumption per capita, also show an increasing distance from the goal of sustainable development, according to the report.

As improvements in environmental pollution was offset by far more serious ecological degradation, the report concluded that Taiwan went in the opposite direction of sustainable development.

According to the Executive Yuan council, the indicators were first produced in 2003 to serve as reference for the nation to pursue environmental sustainability and seek improvement for the environment.

The indicators are divided into six categories — environmental pollution, biological resources, economic pressure, social pressure, system response and urban development.

The 2007 indexes that show efforts to seek improvement in the fields of environment, biology, economy, system and urban development are at a level better than those of 2006, while those in social pressure are at a lower level, according to the report.

The increasing social pressure, used to describe how social structure and economic activities cause damage to the maintenance of the environment and the development of sustainability, was detected in the garbage output per capita, the plantations of betel nut trees, which are considered a key culprit in landslides, the cancer death rate, household incomes and prevalence of contagious diseases.