A clean environment is also an economically viable environment in terms of the balanced use of clean and new renewable energies. Since its inauguration in February 2008, the Lee Myung-bak administration in Korea has been pushing for implementation of its Low Carbon, Green Growth policy. This is a set of environmentally-friendly and energy-saving plans which aim to create a viable economy while using clean and new renewable energies.
In this regard, the 14th World Environment Day (WED), which falls on June 5, has a special meaning for the environmentally-friendly Lee administration. On the occasion of World Environment Day 2009, Vice Minister of Environment Lee Byung-wook spoke for the government's environmental policy with a focus on action plans for green growth.
World Environment Day
WED was first initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. Another UN General Assembly resolution adopted the same day led to the creation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Since its inception, many countries around the world have been observing the day to remind their people of the importance of environmental protection and use of new renewable energies. The designation of the WED was a watershed for the world in its efforts to save the earth by preserving the environment and developing new renewable energies.
"To celebrate the 14th WED," Lee said, "The Environment Ministry plans to hold a formal ceremony at COEX in Seoul on June 5, the first of its kind since the current government declared the Low Carbon, Green Growth vision last year. For this year, the Ministry will deliver a message to the public, advising them to voluntarily take part in the nationwide Green Growth campaign and helping them get determined to live green on their own."
From Cowboy Economy to Spaceship Economy
In the past, the environment was understood from the viewpoint of a cowboy economy. Cowboys in the frontier considered empty land their own to take and develop at their own discretion. They thought the environment to be a treasure trove of boundless resources. But under the current circumstances, the environment should be considered the subject of a spaceship economy. In a spaceship, astronauts are supposed to save and recycle everything in a limited area.
As such, the environment is no longer a regional or national problem, but a global one which all nations should join efforts to solve, given that damage to the environment in one area will soon affect other countries as well. Therefore, an environmental policy in one nation naturally takes on worldwide proportions. By the same token, Korea's Low Carbon, Green Growth policy will not only have a long-term impact on its own people, but effect the worldwide efforts to save the earth.
Low Carbon, Green Growth Policy
"To implement the Low Carbon, Green Growth policy, the government has medium and long-term plans to maintain sustainable growth while overcoming worldwide environmental problems, including global warming," Lee said. "In efforts to reach this goal, it is ready to seek a balance between the environment and the economy and create a virtuous economic cycle."
Lee then introduced 49 action plans for environmental protection as part of the Ministry's efforts to contribute to achieving green growth. According to the plans, the Ministry is poised to give priority to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the country's adaptability to climate change by making energy out of waste resources, drawing and distributing a meteorological resources map, building a climate change monitoring network, and developing a forecasting model.
"The Ministry will take the initiative to help the environmental technology companies seek environmentally-friendly growth. To this end, we'll develop 10 major environmental technologies and foster promising environmental industries," Lee added. "We'll also expand projects to create green jobs in sewage treatment and the Clean Korea Program. We believe these projects will create more jobs than any other plan, while improving the environment." He went on to say, "One of the ultimate goals of the Green Growth policy is to improve the quality of people's lives."
Lee said, "Green growth aims to overcome the global environmental and resource crisis and seek sustained economic growth at the same time." In that regard, the government is promoting a green living campaign so that many people can use as little carbon as possible and many enterprises can make as much investment as possible in developing green technologies, he added.
In this regard, the Ministry is continuously developing policies and projects necessary for green growth, including an environmentally-friendly tax, the creation of green jobs, and investment in developing green technologies. The Ministry will study feasibility to ensure that these policies and projects are implemented efficiently and continuously.
Green IT
The Ministry's Green IT action plan is a combination of two strategies - Green of IT and Green by IT. The Green of IT strategy aims at making new growth engines from green IT products, and the Green by IT strategy is designed to help society use less carbon and increase its ability to cope with climate change.
Lee said, "Under the Green of IT plan, the Ministry will try to distribute more environment certificates and carbon points certificates starting this year. We'll also establish a real-time environmental monitoring and response system." The Ministry is also ready to help the public sector improve the resource circulation system and emit less carbon, he added.
Technological Competitiveness
"The competitiveness of the environment industry will be determined by the level of environmental technologies for preventing environmental pollution and overcoming the crisis in the environment and resources," Lee said. "Despite its advanced technologies in preventing air and water pollution and working out environmental policies, Korea still has lower competitiveness in terms of the professional expertise of most of the country's small environmental companies. Therefore, we need to focus on fostering the environmental technology industry as a future growth engine."
The country will increase investment in developing green technologies from W197 billion (US$159 million) in 2009 to W400 billion (US$322.6 million) by 2012. It will also create 10 environmental markets such as the environmental plant industry, carbon market and urban mining. "The government is determined to jump from tenth place to fifth among the nations of the world by 2012 in terms of environmental technology development," the Vice Minister added. According to the plan, Korea will account for 7 percent of the global environmental market.
Green Campaign
Based on a Green Start Network, the Environment Ministry is trying to carry out the Green Living Campaign and implement carbon points systems on a nationwide basis in cooperation with other government agencies, such as the Green Growth Commission, the Ministries of Gender Equality, of Knowledge Economy, and of Public Administration and Security.
ENVICO
The Environment Ministry is also trying to increase its work efficiency as much as possible through its subsidiary organizations including the Korea Environment & Resources Corporation, or ENVICO. ENVICO is backing up the Ministry’s overall environmental protection efforts to enhance the capabilities of responding to climate change and to lay the foundation for the implementation of the Low Carbon, Green Growth policy.
ENVICO, an organization carrying out resource-recycling policies, is dedicated to recycling agricultural waste and establishing a specialized waste discharge system. The policies ENVICO is currently implementing include Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), electronic waste manifest management, and a waste reduction system. It operates waste treatment facilities, conducts technology inspection, and manages hazardous chemicals to minimize and safely treat waste, recycle resources, and establish preventive waste management.
