By Kim Tae-jong
During an interview with a Korean newspaper last year, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said people are increasingly attempting to justify their actions by hijacking the term "green."
That was what first came to mind as I watched the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals Summit (P4G) held here in Seoul at the end of May.
Its "Seoul Declaration'' was intended to be the centerpiece.
"We recognize the climate crisis as an urgent global threat whose impacts reach beyond the environment agenda to include economic, social, security and human rights-related challenges," it stated.
But the fine sentiments and the hype did little to mask the utter lack of credible action.
The failure to match words with real, tangible policies and outcomes is unfortunately a common theme in the current administration.
For instance, Korea has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050, yet has not revealed how it will get there. And most importantly, the country's current 2030 carbon emission reduction target, which is a 24.4 percent cut from 2017 levels, is insufficient to limit warming to even 2°C.
With nothing forthcoming at the P4G, we will now have to wait until as late as November for an "upgraded" carbon emission reduction target.
What's more, there are seven new coal-fired power plants under development at home, with Korean companies also behind two big coal plant construction projects underway in Vietnam and Indonesia.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), known as relatively conservative on energy issues, even said in its recent report that no new coal-fired power stations can be built if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Certainly, of all the fossil fuels, coal has to be the first to go if there is to be any hope of reaching the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. Building more is a leap in the wrong direction, with any plant built today having a potential lifetime of around 30 years.
Despite the sorry state of climate ambition in South Korea, President Moon has made public an audacious bid to host the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) in 2023.
Without drastically enhancing its climate efforts, the country cannot and should not chair the climate event, whose host country should be able to lead on climate policies, alongside credible plans to deliver them, and build coalitions to respond to humanity's biggest challenge.
For instance, the U.K., the host of COP26, already has a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 68 percent by 2030, and is gearing up the effort to increase it to 78 percent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. The country has also committed to phase out all coal power by 2024.
If the Korean government simply believes hosting an international event is enough to burnish national pride and global status, it's just not true. On the contrary, such a naive idea would shine an international spotlight on the gaping hole at the heart of Korea's climate policy.
Back in 2019, Greta asked global leaders how they 'dared' offer empty words on climate, which stole her dreams and her childhood. Two years later, while there is much more to do, from the Biden Administration to renewable acceleration, the world is starting to belatedly get on the right track.
Korea is kidding itself if it thinks green rhetoric still suffices.
Kim Tae-jong (tj@climatemediahub.com) is the head of Climate Media Hub, a Seoul-based climate advocacy communications organization.
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That was what first came to mind as I watched the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals Summit (P4G) held here in Seoul at the end of May.
Its "Seoul Declaration'' was intended to be the centerpiece.
"We recognize the climate crisis as an urgent global threat whose impacts reach beyond the environment agenda to include economic, social, security and human rights-related challenges," it stated.
But the fine sentiments and the hype did little to mask the utter lack of credible action.
The failure to match words with real, tangible policies and outcomes is unfortunately a common theme in the current administration.
For instance, Korea has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050, yet has not revealed how it will get there. And most importantly, the country's current 2030 carbon emission reduction target, which is a 24.4 percent cut from 2017 levels, is insufficient to limit warming to even 2°C.
With nothing forthcoming at the P4G, we will now have to wait until as late as November for an "upgraded" carbon emission reduction target.
What's more, there are seven new coal-fired power plants under development at home, with Korean companies also behind two big coal plant construction projects underway in Vietnam and Indonesia.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), known as relatively conservative on energy issues, even said in its recent report that no new coal-fired power stations can be built if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Certainly, of all the fossil fuels, coal has to be the first to go if there is to be any hope of reaching the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. Building more is a leap in the wrong direction, with any plant built today having a potential lifetime of around 30 years.
Despite the sorry state of climate ambition in South Korea, President Moon has made public an audacious bid to host the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) in 2023.
Without drastically enhancing its climate efforts, the country cannot and should not chair the climate event, whose host country should be able to lead on climate policies, alongside credible plans to deliver them, and build coalitions to respond to humanity's biggest challenge.
For instance, the U.K., the host of COP26, already has a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 68 percent by 2030, and is gearing up the effort to increase it to 78 percent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. The country has also committed to phase out all coal power by 2024.
If the Korean government simply believes hosting an international event is enough to burnish national pride and global status, it's just not true. On the contrary, such a naive idea would shine an international spotlight on the gaping hole at the heart of Korea's climate policy.
Back in 2019, Greta asked global leaders how they 'dared' offer empty words on climate, which stole her dreams and her childhood. Two years later, while there is much more to do, from the Biden Administration to renewable acceleration, the world is starting to belatedly get on the right track.
Korea is kidding itself if it thinks green rhetoric still suffices.
Kim Tae-jong (tj@climatemediahub.com) is the head of Climate Media Hub, a Seoul-based climate advocacy communications organization.
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