By Yoo Yeon-chul
Now is the time to renew and restart after the presidential election is finished. Even though the campaigns had some disgraceful moments with negative public responses, there was an encouraging and interesting observation made by a foreign national residing in Seoul about the Korean presidential election this year.
He said, "Two things struck me into amazement. One thing is that the ruling party candidate admitted his defeat very quickly and clearly before all the counting of votes was completed and the opposition party candidate declared his victory. Another amazing thing is the accuracy of the exit poll conducted by three broadcasters ― KBS, MBC and SBS. They predicted the victory of the main opposition party candidate with a slim margin of just 0.6 percent. Surprisingly, the final result was a 0.7 percent gap. I highly appreciated Korea's matured democracy and enormous capacity for analysis."
Indeed, his observation reminds me of the quote from Shakespeare: All's well that ends well.
Now is the time for national unity and transformation for the better.
In this time of transition, it is critical to reset the policy for climate and energy. Bearing this in mind, we need to consider the following measures to raise national competitiveness.
First, the new administration should set out an integrated climate and energy policy. This means that the new policy should take a holistic approach that aligns climate mitigation and adaptation policies with energy and electricity supply and demand plans. Currently, climate and energy plans are set up separately with independent timelines that do not align with each other. Yet, they are interconnected.
Second, the energy master plan for 2030 should be rolled out while reconsidering the energy mix. This means that the current nuclear phase-out policy should be reviewed and analyzed thoroughly by various scientists and experts in this field. The new energy master plan can lead to a smoother energy transition from the old energy resources to the new.
Third, the new government should lay out the "just and fair transition roadmap" for the people who are at risk of losing their jobs in the process of the energy transition. It is quite important to take special care of such people in order to minimize social conflicts. It is quite unfortunate that there has been no guidance to provide re-education programs to help them seek new jobs.
Fourth, in order to make an integrated policy, the energy master plan, the just and fair transition roadmap and new governance should be set up to effectively coordinate and control all the related plans. There is a need for a robust control tower that will oversee those policies comprehensively and consistently. For this, a new convergent government body should be established.
Fifth, the carbon market mechanism should be normalized and expanded. The new administration should minimize intervention in the current Emissions Trading System (ETS) to revitalize market mechanisms through reducing the types of subsidies. Furthermore, as the current ETS excludes the transportation and building sectors, the revised ETS should expand its scope to include those sectors for a more proactive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
While keeping our focus to reset, renew and rebuild, it is equally important to retain the previously committed goals and continue to contribute.
We have already committed to the 2050 Carbon Neutrality (net zero) and 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is the national reduction target of greenhouse gas emissions. While remaining committed to these goals, the pathway or scenario to reach the target can be freely revised, taking various circumstances into account.
Tackling climate change should continue to be one of the new government's highest priorities in its national agenda. Climate change has been a top global agenda and one of the most urgent issues that all mankind has to solve together.
It is also important that the new administration should continue to keep the cooperative partnership with key players of climate action such as the United States, China and the EU. As no single actor can combat climate change alone, global partnership is emphasized.
Moreover, we should continue to actively contribute to assisting developing countries in their achievement of sustainable development by utilizing multiple initiatives that Korea has undertaken. This includes Korea's initiatives in establishing the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), hosting the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and spearheading the Partnership for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 (P4G).
Yoo Yeon-chul (ycyoo87@gmail.com) was the ambassador for climate change at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is now serving as vice chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He also served as Korea's ambassador to Kuwait.
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He said, "Two things struck me into amazement. One thing is that the ruling party candidate admitted his defeat very quickly and clearly before all the counting of votes was completed and the opposition party candidate declared his victory. Another amazing thing is the accuracy of the exit poll conducted by three broadcasters ― KBS, MBC and SBS. They predicted the victory of the main opposition party candidate with a slim margin of just 0.6 percent. Surprisingly, the final result was a 0.7 percent gap. I highly appreciated Korea's matured democracy and enormous capacity for analysis."
Indeed, his observation reminds me of the quote from Shakespeare: All's well that ends well.
Now is the time for national unity and transformation for the better.
In this time of transition, it is critical to reset the policy for climate and energy. Bearing this in mind, we need to consider the following measures to raise national competitiveness.
First, the new administration should set out an integrated climate and energy policy. This means that the new policy should take a holistic approach that aligns climate mitigation and adaptation policies with energy and electricity supply and demand plans. Currently, climate and energy plans are set up separately with independent timelines that do not align with each other. Yet, they are interconnected.
Second, the energy master plan for 2030 should be rolled out while reconsidering the energy mix. This means that the current nuclear phase-out policy should be reviewed and analyzed thoroughly by various scientists and experts in this field. The new energy master plan can lead to a smoother energy transition from the old energy resources to the new.
Third, the new government should lay out the "just and fair transition roadmap" for the people who are at risk of losing their jobs in the process of the energy transition. It is quite important to take special care of such people in order to minimize social conflicts. It is quite unfortunate that there has been no guidance to provide re-education programs to help them seek new jobs.
Fourth, in order to make an integrated policy, the energy master plan, the just and fair transition roadmap and new governance should be set up to effectively coordinate and control all the related plans. There is a need for a robust control tower that will oversee those policies comprehensively and consistently. For this, a new convergent government body should be established.
Fifth, the carbon market mechanism should be normalized and expanded. The new administration should minimize intervention in the current Emissions Trading System (ETS) to revitalize market mechanisms through reducing the types of subsidies. Furthermore, as the current ETS excludes the transportation and building sectors, the revised ETS should expand its scope to include those sectors for a more proactive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
While keeping our focus to reset, renew and rebuild, it is equally important to retain the previously committed goals and continue to contribute.
We have already committed to the 2050 Carbon Neutrality (net zero) and 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is the national reduction target of greenhouse gas emissions. While remaining committed to these goals, the pathway or scenario to reach the target can be freely revised, taking various circumstances into account.
Tackling climate change should continue to be one of the new government's highest priorities in its national agenda. Climate change has been a top global agenda and one of the most urgent issues that all mankind has to solve together.
It is also important that the new administration should continue to keep the cooperative partnership with key players of climate action such as the United States, China and the EU. As no single actor can combat climate change alone, global partnership is emphasized.
Moreover, we should continue to actively contribute to assisting developing countries in their achievement of sustainable development by utilizing multiple initiatives that Korea has undertaken. This includes Korea's initiatives in establishing the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), hosting the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and spearheading the Partnership for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 (P4G).
Yoo Yeon-chul (ycyoo87@gmail.com) was the ambassador for climate change at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is now serving as vice chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He also served as Korea's ambassador to Kuwait.
