Former UN chief not fully satisfied with COP26 results

Samil PwC ESG Platform leader Steven Kang, right, moderates a panel discussion during the COP26 Executive Briefing event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Thursday. From left are Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General Tong-Q Lee, British Ambassador to Korea Simon Smith, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Kang. Courtesy of Samil PwC

British envoy shows gratitude for Korea's commitment to net-zero

By Park Jae-hyuk

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed a sense of regret over the outcome of the recent U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26), as he felt that the international community failed to come up with concrete measures to fight climate change during the global event, held between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13 in Glasgow, Scotland.

"There was something regrettable about the fact that 11 years after the world leaders made a promise in Copenhagen's COP15, they were not able to make a firm decision on how they will provide $100 billion per year to developing countries," he said. "They were supposed to provide $100 billion from this year, but this year is almost gone without anything."

Ban emphasized the necessity of a tripartite partnership among the government, civil society and businesses, saying that top executives from Korean conglomerates, such as Hyundai Motor and POSCO, have already told him about their willingness to make efforts to overcome the climate crisis.

He made the remarks during a panel discussion of the COP26 Executive Briefing event, hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce in Korea and the British Embassy in Seoul, and sponsored by Samil PwC, to share the outcomes of the COP26 and to discuss its repercussions for Korea.

British Ambassador to Korea Simon Smith, representing the U.K. government which hosted COP26, expressed gratitude to Korea for participating in the global event and for making efforts to create the momentum for change.

"We were glad to welcome President Moon, and we saw the economy and finance minister and the trade minister at the COP26," he said. "We saw finance represented by the chairman of Shinhan Financial Group briefing global leaders on how they are going to reduce the carbon exposure of their portfolio by 40 percent by 2030."

Tong-Q Lee, the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Climate Change, Energy, Environmental and Scientific Affairs Bureau, said that the Korean government will make every effort to achieve an energy transformation through the Presidential Committee on Carbon Neutrality.

Samil PwC's ESG Platform leader Steven Kang, who moderated the panel discussion, urged businesses to devise carbon neutrality strategies, given that the COP26 agreement is expected to bring drastic changes to environmental regulations in each country.

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