Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Hyundai Motor Group slammed for inconsistent environmental standards
By Kim Bo-eun
The Financial Times' July 23 edition carried an ad by environmental group Market Forces, which denounced Hyundai Motor Group for allowing its affiliate to build a coal-fired power station in Vietnam. Korea Times photo by Lim Mee-young
By Kim Bo-eun
Hyundai Motor Group has come under fire for inconsistent environmental standards in its lines of business, with its crown jewel carmaker transitioning to electric vehicles on one hand, while its construction affiliate is building a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) landed a contract in June to build Quang Trach 1, a 1,200-megawatt coal power station in Vietnam, in a consortium with Japan's Mitsubishi and a Vietnamese state-run builder.
In an ad published in the Financial Times on Friday, environmental group Market Forces slammed Hyundai Motor and Hyundai E&C for their inconsistent environmental standards, demanding that the coal power plant project be scrapped.
"Hyundai is promoting climate-conscious electric cars while still building dirty coal," the Market Forces ad said. "Hyundai can't claim to be sustainable while still building dirty coal power stations.”
The ad showed Hyundai's IONIQ Electric model with the word “IRONIC” written on its license plate. The environmental group urged Hyundai E&C to pull out of the coal power station construction project.
Hyundai Motor's headquarters in southern Seoul / Korea Times file
Following the dispute, Hyundai's construction unit unveiled a plan Friday to phase out coal-related businesses, but stated it will push ahead with the coal power plant construction in Vietnam.
"It is a project that we have discussed with the Vietnamese government for the past decade, since 2011," a Hyundai E&C official said, Friday. "We are unable to scrap the project, as we have a trusted relationship with the Vietnamese government. The plan unveiled today pledges to give up future coal-related construction projects."
Environmental activists slammed Hyundai E&C's coal phase-out statement as a means to evade criticism for constructing the coal power station in Vietnam.
"If Hyundai E&C wants to escape criticism that its coal phase-out policy is a cover-up for the controversy surrounding Quang Trach 1, it needs to reconsider the project from scratch," said Yoon Se-jong, an attorney with Solutions for our Climate.
Yoon Hyun-jung of Youth for Climate said, "Coal power generation is the greatest cause of the climate crisis. It is not something that can be justified by citing a trusted relationship between governments that cannot be broken."
Hyundai Motor Company did not provide an answer to the group's environmental standards in operating its businesses. Hyundai Motor Company is the largest shareholder of Hyundai E&C.
“Given that affiliates operate different lines of businesses, it is up to their discretion when it comes to decisions that may concern the environment,” an official of a Hyundai Motor affiliate said.
Hyundai Motor and four affiliates have joined the RE100 move, a global initiative committed to achieving 100 percent usage of renewable energy.