Considerable progress has been made in promoting sustainable buildings since the Ministry of the Interior launched a green building program in 2001, the CEPD said.

As of September this year, 2,295 buildings have been certified as "green buildings, " and they have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 521,000 tons annually and saved users NT$2.16 billion in electricity and water costs.

Taiwan became the fourth country in the world to implement a green building certification system when it introduced its unique EEWH (ecology, energy saving, waste reduction, health) system in 1999.

The system, specially tailored to account for Taiwan's sub-tropical climate, considers nine indicators in the four categories to determine whether a building meets "green" criteria.

Taiwan was also the first country in which the government took the lead in promoting the initiative, renovating public buildings and requiring them to meet green building criteria, while also including special clauses in its building code on sustainability.

Last year, Taiwan launched a four-year program to promote ecological cities and green buildings. It is expected to spend NT$2 billion (US$61.6 million) by 2011 on renovating metropolitan districts and traditonal street areas, improving interior green design technology, and establishing a market mechanism for green building materials, the CEPD said.

The four-year project is expected to further reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 270,000 tons every year and lower electricity and water fees by NT$890 million a year.

The CEPD also said the government will put some controls on large contruction site development projects in the future to improve the quality of living in cities.

(By Erin Ho and Fanny Liu)