RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Yonhap) -- Korean President Lee Myung-bak left for Chile on Thursday after championing green growth as a solution to economic crisis and other global challenges during a U.N. sustainable development meeting in Brazil.
Green growth was a main theme of the Rio+20 conference that brought together about 50,000 people from around the world, including dozens of heads of state and other government representatives from 186 countries.
During Wednesday's opening session, Lee touted green growth as a solution to global challenges such as the economic crisis, the rich-poor gap and climate change. He also pledged that South Korea would spend more than US$5 billion in official development assistance between 2013 and 2020 to help developing nations pursue economic growth in a greener way.
Green growth, one of Lee's trademark policies, calls for seeking economic growth through environment-friendly technologies and industries. Under that initiative, South Korea set up the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in Seoul to help develop strategies to promote the environment-friendly cause.
Also Wednesday, South Korea, Denmark, Australia and a dozen other countries signed a convention to upgrade GGGI into an official international organization, marking the first time South Korea has led the establishment of an international organization.
The other signatories to the convention are Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guyana, Kiribati, Norway, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
Officials said that GGGI will officially launch as an international organization during a U.N. ministerial meeting on climate change in Seoul in October after the signatory countries ratify the convention.
Lee also attended a global green growth forum organized by Denmark Friday morning.