The Greening of South Korea

Lincoln Davies has a nice post over at Environmental Law Prof about clean energy in South Korea.  He discusses a conference relating to Korea’s planned change from a feed-in-tariff to a renewable portfolio standard as means of promoting clean energy.   Most Americans aren’t aware of this, but Korea has embraced “green growth” as a national goal.  According to the government:

[W]e believe that green growth is the only option if we are to surmount the difficulties the world now faces in climate change, energy consumption and also economic hardship. Green growth is the opportunity for Korea to develop in a sustainable and responsible manner into one of the truly most advanced industrialized countries in the world.

Although it is not an Annex I country under the Kyoto protocol, South Korea has voluntarily adopted an emissions mitigation plan, with a 2020 target of 30% below business as usual.

If these plans are successful, South Korea may become a model for other developing Asian economies.

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