ED Carbon emission reduction policies
Seoul urged to take more proactive steps to cope with climate crisis
Saving the Earth from the crisis of climate change has become the most essential and pressing task facing humankind. Carbon emissions reduction, in particular, has been the key to sustainability for each country amid the rapid paradigm shift toward new growth and industrial models. Against this backdrop, we welcome the recent Leaders Summit on Climate, hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The April 22 to 23 virtual summit has drawn together heads of state and representatives from 40 major countries from around the globe, who came with their own nationally determined contribution (NDC) goals toward much-needed carbon neutrality. During his speech Thursday, President Moon Jae-in said that Seoul will present to the United Nations its commitment to raising its previous target sometime this year.
Yet Seoul has drawn criticism for failing to provide specific target figures compared to other participating countries that have submitted ambitious plans to cope with climate change. For instance, the United States unveiled a plan to curtail its carbon emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The United Kingdom pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 78 percent from 1990 levels by 2035. The European Union also raised its reduction target from 40 percent to 55 percent during the same period.
Japan said that it will reduce its carbon emissions by 43 percent from 2013 levels by 2030. The Korean government last year summited a plan to decrease its carbon emissions by 24.4 percent from 2017 levels by 2030, according to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The target was the same as it offered five years ago. Given this context, Seoul was included in the list of 75 “inactive” countries and again failed to submit concrete plans toward carbon neutrality.
Moon also vowed to stop financing the construction of coal power plants overseas. Coal power has been regarded as an outmoded industry and the main cause of environmental degradation. Eleven countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Germany, have terminated their financial support for the sector. The Moon administration deserves criticism for its “belated plan,” regarding envisioning the termination of coal power projects. Worse still, Moon said Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)'s ongoing projects in Indonesia, the Java 9 and 10 plants, will proceed as planned.
Biden has put climate change at the center of his foreign affairs and security policies since he took office in January. He has been eager to recover the U.S.'s global leadership in coping with climate change while creating decent jobs through more investment in environment-friendly industries and technologies. The recent virtual summit also attracted Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who showed their strong determination to maintain leading roles in the global efforts toward resolving the climate crisis.
The Moon administration should take more proactive measures to catch up with the rapid shift toward global carbon neutrality. A lack of proper policies in South Korea will weaken the competitiveness of domestic companies. The government should properly grasp the fast-changing trend in the global climate regime and come up with concrete and comprehensive measures to prepare for the overall transformation, as these will have a far-flung impact upon both the national economy and society.