By Kim Se-jeong
The government said Thursday it will lower its carbon emissions reduction goals.
The decision drew fierce protest from environmental groups, which claimed it has “succumbed” to pressure from conglomerates to cut targets.
The Ministry of Environment announced four proposals for greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2030 and all emission amounts are higher than the targets set for 2020..
The ministry will hold public debate sessions on the four proposals, and choose one by the end of this month to submit to the United Nations.
In 2009, then-President Lee Myung-bak announced that by 2020, Korea will reduce its greenhouse gases emissions by 30 percent from the business as usual (BAU) level in 2005. That makes the total amount of greenhouse gases emissions in 2020 543 million tons.
The four proposals include a 14.7-percent reduction from the BAU level in 2005 with 726 million tons of emissions; a 19.2-percent reduction with 688 million tons; a 25.7-percent reduction with 632 million tons; and a 31.3-percent reduction with 585 million tons.
Critics say the government has accepted demands from big businesses, especially automobile and energy firms, in drafting the proposals. Business lobby groups have argued the 2020 reduction target was unrealistic.
Environmental NGOS said they were disappointed with the government’s move.
“This shows Korea is sliding from its climate change commitment,” Green Korea said in a statement. “This is unprecedented. The numbers in proposals also show Korea is breaking the commitment it had made with the international community. It is utterly embarrassing for Korea.”
Rep. Lee In-young of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy also slammed the governments for its backward step. “Today’s announcement runs contrary to the international norm where your reduction target goes beyond the current commitment.”
Yvo de Boer, the director general of the Global Green Growth Institute, also expressed his disappointment. "The purpose of the Paris agreement is to reduce emissions, not increase them. Korea really needs to join the international community to curb global warming and be “much more ambitious and serious” about reducing emissions." De Boer was the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change between 2006 and 2010.
Each country is required to submit its voluntary reduction target, also known as Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, before September, and the country representatives will try to put them into a written agreement when they meet in Paris for annual negotiations in December.
The European Union has already submitted its proposal with a 40-percent reduction target by 2030, compared with its 1990 levels. The United States said it will cut 26 percent to 28 percent until 2025, compared with 2005 levels. China so far said its emissions will hit a peak in 2030.
In Paris, negotiators are expecting an agreement, like the Kyoto Protocol, on what to do in the post-2020 period to slow down the pace of global warming and to adapt to a new environment.
Korea received a waiver from a mandatory greenhouse gases emissions reduction under the Kyoto Protocol. Yet, as world’s eighth largest greenhouse gases emitter, Korea is expected to act more to cut emissions faster.