Green growth was formally launched as a development paradigm of a nation for the first time internationally when President Lee Myung-bak declared it to be the main pillar of Korea’s new development vision in his speech on August 15, 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of the Republic. In this speech, President Lee explained that:
“Green growth seeks sustainable growth by reducing GHG emissions and environmental pollution. It is a new development paradigm which creates new growth engines and new jobs from green technologies and clean energies.”
This was 4 years ago. Since then, the Korean government has been pursuing green growth as the country’s new national strategy in earnest.
As a result, Korea has become a much greener country in a number of ways. Those accomplishments may be summarized under 6 headings.
Impacts of 4 Years of Green Growth Policies
First, green industries have emerged as a new growth engine.
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During the first 3 years, the total of green investment made by major business groups amounted to 15.1 trillion won or about 13.7 billion US dollars, recording the annual increase of 74.5% during the period. The investment consisted of those in new & renewable energies, high efficiency electrical equipment, green cars, and climate change adaptation, among others.
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During the same period, there was an 11-fold increase in the deployment of solar power, a more than 2-fold increase in wind power, a 24-fold increase in fuel-cell power, etc., although from very low bases. The new and renewable energy sector recorded a rapid growth: the number of firms doubled, the size of employment increased 4 times, the volumes of sales and exports eachabout 7 times, and private investment 5 times.
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The deployment of smart grid began with the announcement of the roadmap for the national smart grid in 2010, the launching of a test bed in Jeju Island Province in 2009, and the enactment of the Smart Grid Act in November 2011.
Second, green business management practices have been spreading.
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Green management partnership between big enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with the former helping the latter with green management diagnosis and free consultancy, including on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction, has been spreading.
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The Green Certification System in regard to firms, products and technologies, has resulted in the issuance of 745 green certificates in total since it was introduced in April, 2010.
Third, Korea is rapidly becoming a world class competitor in green technologies.
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In several green technologies, Korea is now at the forefront. For example, Korea has or is:
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the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery factory, with supply contracts with a number of global EV manufacturers;
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the world’s second ranking producer of poly-silicon for the solar cell;
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the world’s second largest producer of the LED device;
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the world’s best-class patented technology for carbon capture;
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the world’s first smart grid test bed; and,
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the world’s largest tidal power plant.
Living spaces have become much greener.
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The number of natural environmental conservation zones increased to 244 by the mid-2012.
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The national ecological exploration route in which humans and wildlife animals coexist increased to 898km by the mid-2012.
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The restoration of four major rivers (explained below) has resulted in water quality improvement and ecological integrity. The average BOD(biological oxygen demand) dropped by 66% from 6.2ml to 2.1mg/l.
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The urban living environment has improved with drops in temperature and traffic volume, leading to the consequent improvement in air quality and the noise level.
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The control of toxic air pollutants has been strengthened by strengthening the emission allowance standards for big emission facilities (like power generators) and major emitters of specific toxic air pollutants.
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New facilities management standards have been introduced in order to extend the regulation of harmful air pollutants from chimneys to those from factory processes and facilities.
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Sewage treatment facilities and pipelines have been increased.
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The law and the basic plan for the promotion of water recycling were introduced.
Fourth, buildings and transportation are becoming greener.
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There have been modal shifts from highways to express rails, with lengthening of metropolitan rail tracks, as well as introduction of express lines, and the launching of the project to make all national rails to high-speed rail by 2020.
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Energy standards for buildings are being strengthened, in regard to insulation, energy-consuming appliances and equipment, and architectural design.
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The public sector is leading the greening of buildings, with construction of a test compound of 200 green homes and requiring the super energy-saving buildings for hundreds of public institutions being relocated to the ten cities which have been designated for redevelopment as Innovation Cities.
Fifth, the nation’s capacity to adapt to climate change has been strengthened.
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The National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2010.10) and the National Climate Change Adaptation Center (2009.7) were established.
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Each of the 16 mid-level local governments, consisting of 6 metropolitan cities and 10 provinces, has established its own climate change adaptation plan.
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The four main national rivers have been ‘restored’ in order to secure and manage a sufficient national stock of water throughout the year to prevent flooding (during the monsoon period of late June to early July) and droughts (during late fall through spring) by dredging the river bed and building .
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Measures to prevent and manage natural disasters such as landslides are being taken.
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Food security measures such as development of heat-resistant crop varieties are being taken.
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The weather-forecasting capability has been upgraded to rank among the world’s seven best for accuracy.
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A new climate change scenario for the Korean peninsula is now under preparation for updating.
Place Chart 2. Korea’s National CC Adaptation Plans (2011~2015) around here.
Sixth, Koreans lifestyles have become greener.
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The value of green living is being spread, due to mainstreaming of green growth in school text books, offering of special classes for green education by specialized institutions, and university-student-level special programs like “green campus” and “green college” programs.
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People’s understanding of the climate change crisis has improved (96% accepting the severity of the crisis) and people are increasingly practicing energy-saving ways of living (in the use of the thermostat and mass transits, and the eco-driving practice, etc.).
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Consumption of green products is increasing. Deployment of green cars, that is, hybrid and electric vehicles, is increasing toward 3.65 million by 2020.
Korea’s Policy Framework for Green Growth
Those green growth developments of recent years as summarized above may be explained largely in terms of the fact that in launching of the green growth drive, the Korean government established a strong institutional framework for the promotion of green growth as follows:
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The Presidential Committee on Green Growth was launched in January 2009 as the highest body for inter-Ministerial coordination, and public-private consultation, on all policy matters on green growth.
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In December 2009, the National Assembly unanimously passed the Framework Act bill for Low Carbon Green Growth to provide the legal backing to all governmental work for green growth. This was enacted in April the next year.
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PCGG prepared and issued a National Green Growth Strategy, a long-term policy blue print for green growth, as well as a 5-Year Plan for Green Growth. As required by the Framework Act, sixteen mid-level local governments have prepared their own 5-Year Plans for Green Growth respectively.
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The 5-Year Plan has committed the central government to the 2% rule for green growth budget: during the Plan period of 2009~2013, the green growth budget is scheduled to remain at the level of 2% of the GDP each year. This is twice the amount of green budget recommended by the UNEP.
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The medium-term GHG emission reduction target has been set and specific implementation measures are being taken. The target is to reduce the aggregate emission by 30% relative to the baseline scenario by 2020, the highest target recommended for the Non-Annex I countries (to the Kyoto Protocol) by the IPCC, and a very ambitious one for Korea whose industry is highly energy-intensive. While various measures by sector are being introduced to realize this target, in January 2015, a national emission trading scheme (ETS) will be launched as to reinforce those measures in the most cost-effective way. For this purpose, the National Greenhouse Gas Research and Information Center (GRI) has been established, and an ETS act has been legislated.
Distinctive Features of Korea’s Green Growth Strategy
There are a number of distinct features of Korea’s green growth regime which are embodied in this institutional framework that has been established in this way. It is these distinct features which have made the rather rapid green growth development so far possible. I may identify 5 such distinct features of Korea’s green growth drive as follows:
First, Korea’s green growth policies are comprehensive in scope, covering all sectors of the economy, signifying a development paradigm. And the 5-year planning practice which was discontinued in the early 1990s has been revived for effective coordination of green growth policies among Ministries, between the central government and the local governments, as well as between the public and the private sector.
Second, the environmental goal addressed by Korea’s green growth policies is broader than the traditional one of reducing environmental pollution. The goal here now includesreduction of GHG emissions.
Third, sustainable growth, and not just environmental protection, is the ultimate goal.
Fourth, green innovation is the key to green growth. The GHG emission reduction target is mobilized as the main driver of such green innovation, and is expected to lead to creation of new growth engines and jobs. The main component of green innovation in Korea’s green growth is energy-related innovation, is at the core of the green innovation in question. This is in accordance with the principle that the content of the green growth strategy should be tailored to a nation’s unique local conditions.
Fifth, Korea’s green growth has largely been a top-down process, driven by the central government, whose speed and dynamism has been much owed to the President’s personal commitment to green growth. But it has also been reinforced by bottom-up green growth campaigns by the 16 mid-level local governments as well as the 240 or so base-level local governments.
The Role of Local Governments and Communities
The green growth campaigns bythe 16 mid-level local governments have been spurred by the provision in the Framework Act which requires the respective local governments to designate a Green Growth Officer, create their own local Green Growth Councils and establish their own local 5-Year Plan for Green Growth. Required by the Act, they annually undertake the own reviews and assessments of their implementation of green growth policies and projects. Needless to say, the content of policies differs from one community to another. The six metropolitan cities tend to emphasize greening of buildings, transportation, and the life-style. The agriculture-oriented provinces tend to emphasize climate change adaptation and disaster prevention for sustainable agriculture. Those local communities with a weak industrial basis emphasize the goal of creating new growth engines and propose to promote technology development and industrial complexes.
The base-level local governments are not required to undertake green-growth planning. But the central government encourages competition among them for green growth with a number of competition programs. Most notably, PCGG annually administers the so-called ‘Ecorich City’ competition for green energy, commuting (for green transportation), oasis (for water), recycling, green industry, ecological corridor, and humanism (for green citizenship) each year for thosebase-level local governments. Over the previous three such competitions, a total of 110 governments have participated in this competition with submission of their respective green visions and achievements. Of those110, 37 have been selected as Ecorich Cities. The submissions by those ERCs are amazing in diversity, creativity and the zealous commitment to green growth. And the latest comparative study of the performances of all base-level local communities in terms of several green growth indicators during the previous three years shows that the ERCs have been unambiguously better than the rest.
The key conclusion from this analysis is that with an appropriate framework including a good national vision, policies and incentive, as well as competitive environment provided by the central government, there is an enormous potential for the local communities to contribute to the national green growth development process. Such potential should be harnessed to the full in the years to come.
Korea’s Green Growth: Prospects, Challenges and Aspirations
With the ground work done during last four years as has been reviewed here, Korea is likely to see the blossoming of green growth dynamism under the next government to be launched in February next year. The main challenge for the new government will be to ‘green’ the market mechanism with deployment of carbon pricing and a carbon tax, realignment of other environmental taxes, and a major reform of the electricity pricing mechanism, while recycling much of the consequent revenue to accelerate green innovation. The challenge will be in overcoming the resistance from the interests vested in the status quo of brown growth.
The blossoming of green growth dynamism will hopefully usher in an era of energy and resource productivity revolutions. As the country began to push green growth at home, Korea has been championing green growth internationally, through the OECD, the G20, the UNFCCC COP process, and the Rio+20 process. Korea has also launched its own green ODA programs under the East Asia Climate Partnership Initiative, and is now preparing to expand and globalize this initiative to a Global Green Growth Partnership in 2013. Korea has also launched the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and will have re-launched this in October as an international organization to help the developing economies shift to green growth for sustainable development. Korea hopes that all those initiatives of its own and comparable efforts from other like-minded countries will help bring about the unfolding of a global architecture for green growth over time. Its ultimate vision for the world is one of a global partnership for green growth, as well as sustained growth and development at the global level based on that partnership. Korea would like to continue to play a leading role in realizing this vision.
The international green growth initiatives undertaken by the Korean government may be summarized as follows:
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President Lee proposed green growth as a new frame of thinking on GHG emission reduction negotiation under the UNFCCC and as a new policy framework for the developing countries at the Toyako G+ Summit in June 2008;
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Korea launched the East Asia Climate Partnership initiative, its green ODA programs for Asian countries, in 2008;
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Korea championed the OECD Ministerial Declaration on Green Growth in June 2009 as well as the launching of a 2-year OECD project on the green growth strategy, both leading to the mainstreaming of green growth into the OECD’s agenda for its member governments’ policies ;
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President Lee announced Korea’s medium-term emission target as its voluntary commitment, calling for the ‘me-first’approach to emission reduction commitment at UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen, improving the atmosphere for the negotiations over such commitments;
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Korea launched the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), an international think tank on green growth policies and projects for the developing countries, in Seoul in 2010, which will be turned into an international organization by October 2012;
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Korea pushed green growth into the agenda for the G20 Summit at its Seoul meeting in 2010 and worked with Mexico to mainstream ‘inclusive green growth’ into the development agenda for the G20 at its summit meeting in Los Cabos in June this year;
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Korea has entered into a Green Growth Alliance with Denmark;
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Korea launched a Green Technology Center in Seoul in March this year to promote international cooperation on green technologies with developing countries; and,
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Korea played a key role in pushing ‘green economy’ into the UN agenda for sustainable development, helping to mainstream it into the Rio+20 Outcome as a promising approach to sustainable development.
Soogil Young, PhD, is Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth in the Republic of Korea.