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From today's Korea Herald, here's an article by Park Cheol-Gyu, Director General of the Future Strategy Planning Department at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance:

Green growth has been one of the hottest issues recently, especially since the government announced its Green New Deal project on Jan. 6. The Green New Deal is an ambitious project designed to create 960,000 jobs by investing 50 trillion won ($36.4 billion) over the next four years. There have been debates about what green growth is. The interconnectivity between the protection of the environment and profitability is another hot topic. When we look back, we can see changes in our attitude toward environmental conservation and economic growth.

A brief history

Thomas Malthus argued in his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population that human beings would face limits of growth due to growing populations. Debates regarding the coexistence of conservation and growth followed in the centuries ahead, with some arguing that advanced technologies - including high-tech farming - would one day make economic growth and environmental conservation possible. However, others have argued that economic growth should be given a priority over environmental conservation. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was a turning point in the attitudes toward growth and conservation. The U.N. conference raised international awareness of the importance of environmental conservation, introducing a new idea of green growth. Green growth is generally defined as achieving economic growth by developing low-carbon, eco-friendly industries. In wealthy countries, Green growth is now receiving overall support. It has become a critical model for the future of economic development.

Korea's strategy

The Green New Deal was born against the backdrop last year of the burgeoning global financial crisis. Advanced and developing economies stumbled, central banks and elected figures, including Koreas, stepped in with massive interest rate cuts and fiscal stimulus packages. The Korean government has taken the position that this crisis is an opportunity to advance eco-friendly economics; by pumping investment into green technologies, we will be both helping the economy and setting the stage for future economic growth. The Green New Deals short-term goal is to overcome the current economic difficulties by providing more jobs, while the mid- and long-term goals are to nurture future growth engines and help conserve the environment. Other major economies have also introduced plans to advance eco-friendly growth.

Green New Deal

The U.K. adopted a low-carbon, eco-friendly national strategy in 2005. The plan involves investment in public transportation, incentives for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient, among others. U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan known as the New Apollo Project to invest $150 billion into clean energy development over the next 10 years. Japan also plans to increase the scale of its environmental market to 100 trillion yen by 2015. In addition, the international community has long recommended green growth strategies. Both Agenda 21, revealed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) in South Africa recommended water, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity (WEHAB) as five key sectors needed for sustainable development. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban-Ki-moon urged the formation of international leagues for green growth and green economy-driven job creation at the 13th UN Climate Change Conference. The Korean government's Green New Deal was crafted in line with such global trends, composed of nine core and 27 related projects that will create a large number of near-term jobs. The plan may be divided into four major categories. The first concerns projects to establish an energy-efficient economic structure, such as energy-saving and resource-recycling projects. The government will help to build 2 million eco-friendly green homes, which will utilize solar energy by the end of 2018.

As part of the green school project, schools lacking flora and suffering from poor energy efficiency will be have trees planted on their property and will be provided with technology to utilize a rainwater collecting system. Environment-friendly paint and energy-efficient lighting will be used in those facilities as well. Furthermore, public sector corporations will have 20 percent of their lighting provided by LEDs. The second category includes projects to increase the general standard of healthy living. First of all, the government will increase its investment in low carbon transportation, such as railways and bicycle paths. The opening of Gyeongbu and Honam express railways will happen earlier than scheduled. To promote the use of bicycles, bicycle paths spanning 3,114 kilometers will be gradually established. In major cities, a pilot project to build paths exclusively for bicycles will be planned. Also, rivers throughout the country will be restored. The third category consists of preventative measures such as reducing carbon emissions and securing fresh-water resources. Examples include development of the four major rivers, securing water resources and afforestation projects. Given that Korea is very vulnerable to flooding, with damage from flooding amounting to 2.7 trillion won annually, development of the four rivers is expected to solve this problem, and will allow our rivers to become more environmentally friendly as well as offering people much-needed relaxation areas. Additionally, expansion of dike cross-sections, construction of small and medium-sized dams and flood control gates will help further prevent chances of large-scale flooding. The four rivers, as beautiful as they already are, will receive a complete makeover in order to turn them into major tourist attractions. Bicycle paths will follow alongside rivers, while Cultural Exploration Routes will be established to make the waterways into rivers flowing with history and culture.


The project to utilize forests is also getting attention. As trees are a main source of carbon absorption, forested areas will be greatly expanded, while damaged forests will be restored. Facilities to upgrade the value and maximize the utilization of forest biomass including wood and agricultural products will also be established. Korea has been designated by the U.N. as not having sufficient resources for the future. Building reservoirs and dams will help secure sufficient future water resources as well as minimizing environmental damages. Damming rivers will help to minimize environmental damage. In particular, development of the four major rivers and promoting afforestation is one of the five core tasks presented the at 2002 Sustainable Development Council, and is essential for survival and enhancing competitiveness in the 21st century. The last category concerns investment projects for future industries. The government will systematically establish a database to consolidate basic information required to create a green nation - such as land, energy, water resources and buildings. If the Green New Deal is successful, it is estimated that up to 960,000 jobs will be created in the next four years. The creation of jobs will increase household income, stimulate consumption, promote corporate profitability, and increase investment. This will lead to a positive ripple effect on retail and domestic industries, accelerating economic recovery. The Green New Deal Policy will also contribute to stimulating the regional economy. The river development projects will particularly benefit small and medium-sized construction companies located nearby the rivers. If underutilized, riverside land can be developed into leisure or cultural spaces, they will give residents a place to relax. Creating bicycle paths throughout the country will stimulate the tourism and leisure industries. The early opening of the Gyeongbu and Honam expressways is expected to improve accessibility and lead to regional development. The Korean government has tried to overcome problems that the existing environment and green growth policies face while establishing new measures through the Green New Deal. The existing measures on conservation build a consensus on their necessity, but did not involve a funding resources mechanism. It was a challenge to develop conservation policy into job creation and growth. However, the Green New Deal is a tangible idea that connects the existing green growth plan with funding and support.

The project may cost 50 trillion won in total between 2009 and 2012. In this regard, there are some concerns that this will harm the fiscal soundness of the central government. But such a belief is unfounded. After President Lee announced low carbon, green growth as a policy goal on Aug. 15, 2008, government departments actively developed diverse policies, which might have resulted in an overlap in investment. However, the Green New Deal has focused on preventing overlapping investment in the same areas and promoting financial efficiency: it introduced a targeted policy package based on key factors that meet global standards. In other words, government agencies merge projects based on key business sectors, creating a package to maximize policy effects. They also tried to restructure projects in non-key areas to promote efficiency. The government strictly applied the principle of being timely, targeted, temporary, in consideration of growth potential, while coming up with Green New Deal policy. It is possible to make timely measures in forest conservation, for example, by creating jobs and temporarily managing the scope of business if the economy improves. Moreover, it is targeted enough to make a connection with the future growth business or forest biomass. Of the 50 trillion won, only 38 trillion won is to be supported by state subvention. It is only 3.2 percent of the estimated budget between 2009 and 2012. While making spending plans, the government will prioritize existing projects, manage the timing of operations, etc.

In conclusion, the Green New Deal is designed to ensure a growth engine for the future as well as to overcome financial difficulty and create jobs. Thus, the project will be a stepping stone to turn todays crisis into an opportunity. It is our plan that the government will have a ministerial-level crisis management council before announcing the details of nine key business areas of the Green New Deal in January or February. In line with the proposal of new growth engines unveiled on Jan. 13, the government will make efforts to strengthen the strategy of increasing green technology and strive to achieve practical and balanced results through the Green New Deal policy.

By Park Cheol-kyu

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Personally, while I appreciate that the government seems to be taking green issues more seriously, they still appear to have an obsession with applying 'techno-fixes' to the energy and water supply problems. Have you ever seen the way he average Korean family washes their veges and dishes? Huge amounts of water get simply flushed down the drain. And we all know how much energy is wasted on excessive heating in winter. How about the Korean government launching an "It's-not-actually-that-cold-please-stop-saying-"추워"-every-five-seconds" campaign.

As for getting all excited about building new roads to improve traffic efficiency - it's been proven time and time again around the world that new roads simply generate new traffic. Also, the number of over-sized cars in Korea is ridiculous. I don't care if the newest SUVs coming out of Hyundai's factory have hybrid engines, the government should be strongly encouraging the production of far smaller cars.

Still, it's the same mindset that has so many Koreans throwing away perfectly usable furniture and clothing because it's "old" or "unfashionable" that has so many rich, middle-aged ajumma peaking over the steering wheels of tank-sized SUVs at the Sinsegye Department Store. It doesn't matter if the car you drive to the department store a hybrid, hydrogen powered or kimchi powered SUV, if your society's primary interest is encouraging endless consumption and "growth" then you're still buggered in the long-term.

Most of the time "green growth" simply translates to outsourcing your polluting industries to some third world country while saying "oh, aren't we cool here, we all skate board to work, design computer programmes and drink organic smoothies".

I'm in support of their railway and cyclepath plans however, and would love to see renewed reforestation projects in Korea too. To South Korea's credit, they actually have one of the best reforestation records in the world. But during the major reforestation campaigns of the 1960s - 1980s the bulk of the new trees were pine. Now Korean mountains have more pine cover than they should naturally have and these pine forests are especially vulnerable to forest fires and disease.