The “green” phenomenon is spreading in Korea!

In Korea, “green growth” policies became a priority for the administration of President Lee Myung-bak after it launched its Green New Deal program last year. The Green New Deal is a road map for reviving the economy and creating jobs under the umbrella of environmental protection.

Korea has been pursuing these policies through the production of goods such as food, beverages, cosmetics and diapers and the development of technology, transportation, housing systems and business strategies. Nevertheless, Korea is recently one of the top nine carbon dioxide-emitting countries. It is also the world’s fourth largest importer of crude oil and the world’s seventh largest oil consumer.

“Korea is not yet among the countries required to reduce carbon emissions, but it is important for Korea to participate in this global movement for the future of the country’s economy,” said Yang Kook-bo, director of environmental policies at the Korea-Trade Investment Promotion Agency. “Honestly, I think we should have done this earlier.”

Major Korean companies that emit carbon dioxide in large quantities. In addition, Korea imports many of its energy resources, which makes it reliant upon other countries for its energy needs. These factors make renewable energy even more important for Korea. If the country can develop ways to produce and distribute renewable energy, it won’t need to import so many raw materials from other countries so, it will be able to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases it produces.

That means Korea needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. What is renewable energy? Renewable energy is energy generated from natural sources such as the sun, wind and water that are unlimited and do not pollute the environment.

Yang believes that Korean companies should move quickly to acquire or develop the technology needed to produce alternative sources of energy. In recent years, Korea has been working to develop renewable energy sources. But the use of solar and wind power, for example, is still low compared to other advanced countries. However, the biggest obstacle to using renewable energy is still the cost of the initial investment. This prevents many countries from using more renewable energy because fossil fuels are still less expensive.

In Korea, the fundamental technology needed to generate and distribute solar, wind and water power still needs to be imported here from abroad. To develop new technology that will be able to support renewable energy, the Korean government will raise 111.5 trillion won until 2030. The government will spend 39.2 trillion won, and the rest of the money will come from the private sector.