By Jang Daul
Severe heat waves are currently devastating the United States, with California recording the highest temperature of 54 degrees Celsius. It seems that rare extreme weather events are happening a lot more often.
Yes, these are due to climate change which increases the severity and frequency of natural disasters. While the world still struggles with the COVID-19, the climate is worsening day by day.
Considering the role and responsibility of Korea, the world is waiting to see how much President Moon Jae-in will strengthen Korea's 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and what concrete plans will be announced to reach the goal of 2050 carbon neutrality.
However, a June 16 speech at the National Assembly by Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), raised serious doubts about whether Korea will not only come up with an ambitious enough, but also achievable, climate action plan.
Firstly, Song said we need to "lower the global average temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius." It shows that he might not clearly understand what the 1.5 degrees target means. Climate change is nearly irreversible. We cannot "lower" but only limit the increase of the global average temperature and now the world aims to hold it below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
I hope it was a mere slip of the tongue even though it was not his first time. Otherwise, it is quite frightening to have a ruling party leader who does not understand climate science and the global climate regime at this time of a climate emergency.
Secondly, Song claimed that small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion could play important roles in achieving carbon neutrality. Here, again, he demonstrates his lack of understanding of the current global climate regime.
There is a given fixed carbon budget required to hold the increase in global average temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It means we need to act now and curb emissions by half within eight years, as emphasized by Song in his speech.
However, the SMRs and nuclear fusion are not commercially available now ― they are as yet unproven technologies. Even without mentioning various concerns around their safety, economics, waste problems, non-proliferation and public acceptance issues, their contribution to the required drastic reduction by 2030 will be close to none, and to the 2050 carbon neutrality goal, very uncertain.
A few statistics also show that Song's stance on renewables and nuclear power is far from reality. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), around 250 gigawatts of renewable capacity was added in 2020. It was a record-breaking addition despite the economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The newly added nuclear fission capacity in the same year was 5.5 gigawatts while almost equivalent capacity was permanently shut down according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. And obviously, there was no added capacity for nuclear fusion or SMRs in 2020.
The average share of renewables among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members in 2020 was 32 percent. The key developed countries have already proven that a higher renewable share is possible ― 82 percent for Denmark, 47 percent for Germany, and 45 percent for the United Kingdom and Spain in 2020.
The 100 percent renewable electricity system is a not easy but achievable future and already many countries including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Spain have already set 100 percent renewable electricity targets before 2050 with concrete plans.
Research (Sovacool et al.) published in Nature Energy in October 2020 analyzed the global datasets of national carbon emissions and renewable and nuclear power production across 123 countries over 25 years. The researchers found that there was a negative association between the scales of national nuclear and renewables expansion. In other words, nuclear and renewables development tend to crowd each other out.
The Ministry of Environment recently disclosed preliminary greenhouse gas (GHG) statistics for South Korea. In 2020 the total emissions were 649 million tons, a 7 percent decrease from 2019. The decrease of coal and increase of renewables in power generation resulting from the climate and energy policies of Moon Jae-in administration were major drivers of the reduction.
To meet the globally required GHGs emission reduction level by 2030, Korea needs to continuously cut its total emissions by around 7 percent every year. To do so, with the limited time and resources, the ruling party needs to support the government to focus not on false solutions such as investing in SMRs and nuclear fusion, but on correct solutions.
The globally accepted faster, safer, cheaper and more publicly acceptable solutions are faster and bigger deployment of renewables, more investment in flexible resources to supplement the intermittency of renewables, and a faster phase out of fossil fuel-fired power plants and internal combustion engine vehicles.
With the power given to his position as a ruling party leader of the world's 10th largest economy and one of the major carbon emitting countries in the world, Song needs to lead his party with a correct understanding and appropriate solutions.
Jang Daul (daul.jang@greenpeace.org) is a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia Seoul Office.
 |
Yes, these are due to climate change which increases the severity and frequency of natural disasters. While the world still struggles with the COVID-19, the climate is worsening day by day.
Considering the role and responsibility of Korea, the world is waiting to see how much President Moon Jae-in will strengthen Korea's 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and what concrete plans will be announced to reach the goal of 2050 carbon neutrality.
However, a June 16 speech at the National Assembly by Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), raised serious doubts about whether Korea will not only come up with an ambitious enough, but also achievable, climate action plan.
Firstly, Song said we need to "lower the global average temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius." It shows that he might not clearly understand what the 1.5 degrees target means. Climate change is nearly irreversible. We cannot "lower" but only limit the increase of the global average temperature and now the world aims to hold it below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
I hope it was a mere slip of the tongue even though it was not his first time. Otherwise, it is quite frightening to have a ruling party leader who does not understand climate science and the global climate regime at this time of a climate emergency.
Secondly, Song claimed that small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion could play important roles in achieving carbon neutrality. Here, again, he demonstrates his lack of understanding of the current global climate regime.
There is a given fixed carbon budget required to hold the increase in global average temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It means we need to act now and curb emissions by half within eight years, as emphasized by Song in his speech.
However, the SMRs and nuclear fusion are not commercially available now ― they are as yet unproven technologies. Even without mentioning various concerns around their safety, economics, waste problems, non-proliferation and public acceptance issues, their contribution to the required drastic reduction by 2030 will be close to none, and to the 2050 carbon neutrality goal, very uncertain.
A few statistics also show that Song's stance on renewables and nuclear power is far from reality. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), around 250 gigawatts of renewable capacity was added in 2020. It was a record-breaking addition despite the economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The newly added nuclear fission capacity in the same year was 5.5 gigawatts while almost equivalent capacity was permanently shut down according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. And obviously, there was no added capacity for nuclear fusion or SMRs in 2020.
The average share of renewables among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members in 2020 was 32 percent. The key developed countries have already proven that a higher renewable share is possible ― 82 percent for Denmark, 47 percent for Germany, and 45 percent for the United Kingdom and Spain in 2020.
The 100 percent renewable electricity system is a not easy but achievable future and already many countries including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Spain have already set 100 percent renewable electricity targets before 2050 with concrete plans.
Research (Sovacool et al.) published in Nature Energy in October 2020 analyzed the global datasets of national carbon emissions and renewable and nuclear power production across 123 countries over 25 years. The researchers found that there was a negative association between the scales of national nuclear and renewables expansion. In other words, nuclear and renewables development tend to crowd each other out.
The Ministry of Environment recently disclosed preliminary greenhouse gas (GHG) statistics for South Korea. In 2020 the total emissions were 649 million tons, a 7 percent decrease from 2019. The decrease of coal and increase of renewables in power generation resulting from the climate and energy policies of Moon Jae-in administration were major drivers of the reduction.
To meet the globally required GHGs emission reduction level by 2030, Korea needs to continuously cut its total emissions by around 7 percent every year. To do so, with the limited time and resources, the ruling party needs to support the government to focus not on false solutions such as investing in SMRs and nuclear fusion, but on correct solutions.
The globally accepted faster, safer, cheaper and more publicly acceptable solutions are faster and bigger deployment of renewables, more investment in flexible resources to supplement the intermittency of renewables, and a faster phase out of fossil fuel-fired power plants and internal combustion engine vehicles.
With the power given to his position as a ruling party leader of the world's 10th largest economy and one of the major carbon emitting countries in the world, Song needs to lead his party with a correct understanding and appropriate solutions.
Jang Daul (daul.jang@greenpeace.org) is a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia Seoul Office.
![[INTERVIEW] Production company AStory expects great success with 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' franchise](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/06bfe09b25694aafbd347202cbad4257.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
