Seoul should practice what it preaches on CO2 emissions
At the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, former President Lee Myung-bak vowed to reduce Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in 2020.
But the nation’s discharge of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases surged 9.8 percent in 2010, marking the biggest increase in 17 years and exposing its leader’s pledge as an empty words. There are whispers within the international community about the Lee administration’s hollow, even deceitful, promise.
The government attributes the steep increase to an unusually hot summer and cold winter of that year, as well as brisk manufacturing of steel and automobiles. It still falls short of explaining the near 10 percent growth, compared with the average 1.7 percent gain in the preceding four years.
Even if the officials’ explanations are true, it only reaffirms the need for Korea to step up efforts to turn its words into deeds. For how long should the nation remain trapped in a vicious circle in which emissions of hothouse gases leads to extreme weather, which in turn results in even more emissions to meet the continuously growing demand for warming and cooling fuel until the abnormal climate becomes the new normal?
The manufacturing boom, while not bad for short-term recovery, also shows how far the nation’s industry must go in order to become a truly advanced economy.
It is, of course, not easy to persuade domestic businesses to take the lead in “green growth” as Lee so confidently boasted. Almost all of Korea’s major competitors, not just the industrialized economies of the U.S. and Japan but also large emerging ones such as China and India, have bowed out of the extended regime of the Kyoto Protocol on mandatory emission cuts. Local firms might as well ask why Korea, an environmentally-developing country with no obligations to reduce emissions, has remained under the agreement.
There are at least three reasons.
First of all, Korea is no longer an exception from the various disasters of climate change. Currently environmental harm is mostly limited to uncomfortable weather but could soon change to the creation of unlivable conditions. Second, there is a race for new markets. China, which many Koreans regard as home to smokestack industries, is rapidly growing into a clean energy power. If Korea lags behind its giant neighbor even in future industries, the nation’s industrial outlook will be grim. Third, the nation has a credibility gap if it reneges on an international commitment.
It was only months ago that the nation rejoiced over its hosting of the headquarters of the Green Climate Fund, one of the “signature feats” of the former President. How can Korea, the world’s seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gas and the largest in per capita emissions, persuade skeptical foreigners of an environmental bridge between advanced and developing nations unless it provides an example as a model reducer?
All this explains why the nation should hasten to introduce emission trading, levy carbon taxes, and forgo the scheduled construction of 18 thermal power plants.
The businesses need incentives to move on. The best person to provide them is President Park Geun-hye, who preaches on having a “creative” economy.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Friday, March 1, 2013.
