Glocalization: think globally, act locally
By Yoo Yeon-chul
We're approaching the end of this year. As we reflect on this year in terms of climate phenomena, global villages have experienced devastating damage from abnormal weather. In Europe, the heaviest rains and most extreme temperatures in 1,000 years were recorded. In North America, heat waves and dry weather caused wildfires to ignite spontaneously. In Asia, torrential rains occurred in China and Japan. Korea also suffered great damage from a long rainy season.
In this era of climate crisis, we need a massive scaling-up of climate action all over the world. Our future lies in resilience that requires a collective effort from every community. Then, who will take climate action? Both national and local governments should have ambitious targets and climate actions. Collectively, they should be the driving force for implementation.
The world is now shifting from globalization to glocalization. Glocalization is a term that means, quite literally, the combination of global and local consideration. A glocalization mindset might drive a country or people to “think globally and act locally.” The glocal mindset calls us to reject the standard “one-size-fits-all” paradigm of globalization.
The current world is now hyperconnected, allowing people to directly engage with each other in localities from regions that stretch around the world. A more intimate and inclusive engagement in commerce and social life is accompanied by a shift from globalization to glocalization.
This shift from globalization to glocalization is transforming the relationships between national governments and local communities. In order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, we should discuss actions closely related to local initiatives and the lifestyles of the people.
Local entities are expected to play a central role as planners, managers and operators of energy-related projects and services. Yet many local entities face obstacles, such as a lack of capacity, resources and authority.
In this context, what role does this leave for the national government?
First, the national government's support for local governments is essential to achieve net-zero and delivers many co-benefits. Due to the urgency of the climate crisis and the vital roles local governments will have to play in reaching net-zero, it is critical that a timely solution to support local governments' actions is found.
Secondly, the national government should provide local governments with the opportunity to voice their positions in formulating nationwide pathways to reach net-zero. It will be impossible to get close to meeting a net-zero target without local governments' and people's engagement. Local communities need to be brought into the decision-making process to have a sense of ownership of carbon neutrality.
Thirdly, it will be vital for the national government to empower local governments by transferring responsibility on the energy system. In a state of climate emergency, the future lies in local, renewable and net-zero energy. The net-zero transition will require local innovation in energy demand and supply. Given appropriate government support, community energy is ready to scale.
Many experts say that national government has no choice but to allow local communities to generate their own energy in the future. Local energy transition for reducing greenhouse gases will not be an option but become essential for sustainability.
Now, local communities, as investors, innovators, consumers and producers, must transition into distributed renewable energy system. Energy decentralization and energy independence can be achieved through mutual cooperation with the national government and energy-climate related organizations. Governance coordination with the central government strengthens local governments' capacity to be a leading player for local energy transition and tackling climate change.
The local governments in Korea have been enthusiastic in that all 226 local governments became the world's first to declare their 2050 carbon neutrality goal to the world, at the 2021 Partnering for Green Growth and Global Goals (P4G) Summit held in Seoul at the end of May this year.
Now is indeed the time for the actions of local governments in tackling climate change with the collaboration of the national government that will support and empower them.
It is my wish that 2022 will be the year of glocalization in overcoming the climate crisis.
Happy green New Year!
Yoo Yeon-chul (ycyoo87@gmail.com) was ambassador for climate change at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is now serving as vice chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He also served as Korea's ambassador to Kuwait.