Taiwan is one of the world’s leading semiconductor hubs and plays a pivotal role in global supply chains. At the same time, semiconductor manufacturing is among the most resource-intensive industries, requiring vast amounts of water, energy, and chemicals while generating complex material and waste streams.

As production capacity continues to expand, environmental pressures are intensifying. Water scarcity, rising energy demand, increasing CO₂ emissions, and climate-related risks such as prolonged droughts pose growing challenges to the industry. Although individual measures to improve resource efficiency have already been implemented, a comprehensive political, regulatory, and administrative framework for a systematic circular economy in Taiwan’s semiconductor sector is still at an early stage of development.

Against this backdrop, our project conducts a feasibility study to analyse the political, regulatory, administrative, and technical conditions for advancing a sustainable circular economy in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. The study combines structural analysis, stakeholder mapping, expert interviews, and benchmarking against international best practices, with a particular focus on German experience.

Based on this analysis, the project identifies key transformation needs in the areas of water, energy, and material flows and develops practical policy recommendations for Taiwan. At the same time, it identifies opportunities for the long-term deployment of German environmental technologies and strengthens German–Taiwanese cooperation. By creating a sound knowledge base and fostering dialogue among key stakeholders, the project also lays the foundation for future pilot initiatives and follow-up projects.