ED It's time to change
Korea should decouple growth and electricity consumption
By Jang Daul
Korea's power generation surpassed Germany's for the first time ever last year. It is surprising that Korea needed more electricity than Germany, considering that the European country has a population that is 1.6 times bigger, land 3.6 times larger, and a GDP that is 2.2 times bigger than Korea's.
Electricity was introduced to Korea in 1887 by Thomas Edison's company, only eight years after he introduced the light bulb in the U.S. It was Yu Kil-chun, the first Korean to study in the U.S., who suggested introducing electricity to King Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty.
Along with economic development, electricity production in Korea increased rapidly. Compared to the early 1960s, total power generation in Korea increased by three hundred times last year.
As a result, Korea became the world's eighth-largest power producer in 2022 or the fourth among OECD member countries after the U.S., Japan and Canada. Korea's per capita electricity generation also increased significantly, and almost equaled the U.S.' output last year and more than double that of the U.K. and Italy.
Energy is crucial for economic development. Electricity is an important part of modern life and key to the economy. We use electricity for appliances, lights, ventilation, heating and air conditioning at home.
It was generally understood that there is a high level of correlation between higher GDP and greater energy use. However, the strong linkage between economic growth and energy consumption is beginning to decouple, especially in advanced countries. In other words, while the economy still grows, energy consumption does not increase, but maintains a similar level of consumption or even decreases.
Over the last 10 years, many advanced economies increased their GDP while their electricity generation decreased. For example, Germany's GDP increased by 11.6 percent while its power consumption decreased by 7.7 percent. The U.K., home to the industrial revolution, also reduced its electricity production by 8.6 percent while its economy grew by 13.7 percent during the same period.
Yet, different from Germany, the U.K., Japan, France and Italy, Korea's power consumption increased while GDP rose during the last decade. The higher share of manufacturing compared to GDP could be more challenging, but it should not be an excuse for inaction.
Germany and Japan also have a high share of manufacturing in GDP but managed to decrease their electricity consumption with various power demand management and energy efficiency policies.
Obviously, it is impossible to increase electricity consumption to infinity. There are clearly “limits to growth” as the Club of Rome warned in 1972 and has been updating since.
Therefore, it's time for our society to deliberately plan to decouple economic growth and electricity consumption. The government and parliament need to place much more attention on electricity demand management and energy efficiency.
The industry sector consumed 54 percent of the total electricity last year compared to 15 percent by the residential sector and 23 percent by the general sector. Especially large electricity-consuming industries such as the semiconductor, display and steel industries should lead the initiative with higher degrees of responsibility.
Another challenge for our society's electricity consumption is changing the sources of electricity. The share of fossil fuels used in electricity generation in 2022 was still 63 percent, mainly coal and gas. Burning fossil fuels is the No. 1 contributor to the climate crisis.
As a global community, we are painfully witnessing the devastating consequences of climate change from the heavy flooding in Pakistan to the wildfires in Canada, Hawaii and Greece. We also recently lost lives in Korea due to heavy rains in July.
The impact of climate change does not stop at the loss of lives. Climate change could increase diseases, water scarcity, crop failure and damage to social infrastructure while reducing biodiversity.
The impact of climate change could create health crises, social unrest, unemployment, poverty, food crises, business interruption and GDP loss, ending up with massive human migration, armed conflicts and the destabilization of markets.
Therefore, the International Energy Agency advised advanced economies to achieve net-zero emissions in the power sector by 2035 and by 2040 for the entire global community. That means we need to phase out fossil fuels in the power sector as fast as possible and move into a renewable energy dominant electricity generation system.
We do not need another devastating extreme weather event to realize that climate change is real. We have had enough events, including the worst heat wave in 2018, the longest monsoon in 2020 and the longest wildfire in 2022.
Carbon emissions will not decrease if we repeat what we have been doing ― more energy for more growth, continuous extraction of fossil fuels, and putting profits over people and the planet. It's time to plan to decouple and change.
Jang Daul (daul.jang@greenpeace.org) is a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia Seoul Office and guest editorial writer at The Korea Times.