Marching for climate justice Participants in a rally for climate justice march down a street in southern Seoul near Samseong Station on Sept. 7, 2024. (Yonhap)
It is interesting that with all the talk of global warming from the Korean Democratic Party, it is President Yoon from the Korean conservative party who has actually done more to cut carbon emissions. I have always said that any global warming person who doesn’t advocate for the use of nuclear power is not serious in their beliefs and this just proves it:
As the Yoon Suk Yeol government significantly increased the proportion of nuclear power generation, its dependence on fossil fuels fell significantly. Dependence on fossil fuels has become lower than during the Moon Jae In government, which implemented a policy of de-nuclearization to reduce carbon emissions. Attention is focusing on how strongly the Democratic Party of Korea, which won a landslide victory in the general election, will push for the restoration of its policy on denuclearization, which it had promised.
According to the Korea Electric Power Corporation on the 15th, nuclear power accounted for 30.2% of the total power generation in the two years since the inauguration of the Yoon Suk Yeol government until last year. This is an increase of 3.7 percentage points from the previous Moon Jae In administration, which was only 26.5 percent. The share of renewable power generation also rose 2.8 percentage points from 7.6% during the Moon administration to 10.4% during the Yoon administration.
Here is some good news for those hoping for better air in South Korea:
South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions are believed to have fallen for the second consecutive year in 2023, government estimates showed Sunday.
According to the estimates by the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth, South Korea’s emissions in the energy transition sector last year were estimated at 203.7 million tons, a 4.8 percent fall from 219.3 million tons in 2022.
Emissions in the industrial sector are also believed to amount to 244.7 million tons last year, a 0.4 percent decline from 245.8 million tons in 2022, according to the estimates.
It appears this is going to be the new left wing talking point that COVID was caused by global warming even though there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that it was accidentally released from a Chinese lab:
Former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers a keynote address during the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo, at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul’s Mapo District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may be the “last warning from nature” that is urging humanity to respond immediately to the climate crisis, former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.
Ban, who currently chairs the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, made the remark during the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a phenomenon of the climate crisis,” he said in a keynote address at the forum held at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul. “Following the virus outbreak, humans have realized the need to fundamentally resolve environmental problems for their sustainable survival.”
Here is just another example of a governmentsmaking a grand proclamation, but put it so far out in the future that no one in power now can be held accountable for it:
Ban and Kim said the country needs a new alternative for coal and nuclear power if it is to realize the “net zero” goal by 2050. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul.
The ever-manifesting global alliance on lowering carbon emissions to curb the feared consequences of global warming has recently forced the South Korean government to announce on Oct. 28 the country would go “net zero” by 2050 ― bringing the net amount of carbon emissions to zero. The announcement came after the Moon Jae-in administration in July released the Green New Deal, a set of future-oriented policies invested with 73 trillion won ($66.2 billion) to minimize carbon emissions, as part of the game-changing Korean New Deal plan to restructure the country’s economy.
But the Green New Deal stoked doubts and drew criticism over its superficiality and lack of detailed plans, as well as its focus on job creation and the economy rather than the dire environmental concerns already affecting lives. Since then, people have demanded an incisive and critical evaluation of the country’s ongoing carbon reduction efforts that embrace both future industries and future generations. (…..)
“The Moon administration’s announcement of net zero is a welcome sign after the Green New Deal caught flak from many experts, including myself, for putting climate ambitions in the backseat to concentrate on the COVID-19-hit economy,” said Ban, now heading the National Council on Climate and Air Quality (NCCA) established in 2019 directly under President Moon. “It also seems inevitable after China and Japan announced earlier this year going net zero by 2060 and 2050, respectively, and U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden promised to push for net zero by 2050 with a $2 trillion budget and new carbon adjustment fees and return to the Paris Agreement.”
A farmer looks at rotten or crushed peaches at an orchard in Hwasun, South Jeolla Province, southwestern South Korea, on Aug. 10, 2020, after they fell due to torrential rain. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s annual rainy season has continued for 49 days now, the longest on record, and is poised to set a fresh record as more rains are forecast to pour down until mid-August.
The monsoon season, which has begun on June 24, tied the previous record of 49 days set in 2013, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said, and will continue until Aug. 16 in the capital Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and western Gangwon Province.
On the southern resort island of Jeju, the rainy season lasted for 49 days from June 10 to July 28, breaking the previous record of 47 days set in 1998.
This year’s rainy season will end the latest on record, surpassing the previous record set on Aug. 10, 1987.
Here is the latest country to jump on the global warming bandwagon:
Pyongyang, North Korea
North Korea has accused U.S. military and environmental policies of causing climate change and producing pollution around the world.
In a scathing report cited Friday by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state-run Institute for International Studies of the DPRK (an acronym for the country’s official title: the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea), asserted that the U.S.’s use of nuclear weapons, involvement in foreign conflicts and style of production had most harmed the environment since the Cold War. The study, attributed to researcher Kim Kum Hui and titled “The U.S. Is Chiefly to Blame for Global Environmental Pollution,” advised the U.S. to change course and safeguard the environment.
“All facts clearly show that the U.S. is not only a ringleader which spawned global warming threatening the human existence and future of the earth but the enemy of mankind driving into an irretrievably catastrophic consequences by disturbing even the worldwide efforts to prevent it,” the article read.
“If the U.S. continues swimming against the trend of the times protecting the global environment, it will not escape from the stern judgment of mankind,” the piece added [Newsweek]
First of all notice how they call this the Climate Change Performance Index instead of the Global Warming Performance Index. This just shows how they have actual little confidence in global warming and instead hedge their bets by calling it climate change. Regardless South Korea is supposed not doing a whole lot to meet global warming goals:
South Korea is getting a failing grade in its response to climate change, ranking among the worst countries in the world according to an international environmental organization and a nongovernmental research institute.
In the 2016 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), South Korea ranked fifth from the bottom, among 58 countries being assessed. The index was released on Dec. 8 – amid a conference of countries that are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, an international alliance of environmental groups, and by Germanwatch, an independent German research institute.
While South Korea is 57th on the list, its actual rank is 54th; researchers left the first three spots empty to reflect the fact that no countries are adequately responding to climate change. This was two spots lower than last year and 23 lower than 2010.
These two organizations draw up the index every year by ranking the 58 countries whose greenhouse gas emissions collectively account for at least 90% of total global emissions. In assigning ranks, 30% of points are given for emissions levels, 30% for recent development of emissions, 20% for climate change policies, 10% for recent development of renewable energy and its share of the primary energy supply, and 10% for efficiency levels and recent developments in efficiency. [Hankyoreh]
