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South Korea will join worldwide efforts to cut greenhouse gases beginning 2013 under a roadmap adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference 2007, which came to a close in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday.
The Bali roadmap envisages negotiations, to be concluded by 2009, on the reduction of greenhouse gases from 2012, when the ill-fated Kyoto Protocol expires. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, under which only 39 industrial developed countries among 172 signatories have target levels for the 2008-2012 period, the Bali roadmap urges all countries to participate in the reduction talks. And this time, the U.S. is on board. Both developed and developing countries are required to voluntarily set forth concrete reduction targets according to their individual capabilities based on their own careful studies.
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An activist raises her hand through a hole in a giant banner near the venue of the UN Climate Change Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali island on Saturday./Reuters
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As a result, South Korea too will have to prepare to reduce greenhouse gases. Until recently, the country had no obligation as it was classified as a developing nation. But as the world¡¯s ninth largest greenhouse gas emitter and the world's 11th largest economy, the country is expected to face pressure from developed countries to set a higher target. "We need to replace the current carbon energy-based economic structure with a structure using low carbon, clean energy technologies,¡± said Choi Jae-chul, the director general of the International Economic Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
South Korea will find it virtually impossible to continue its free ride. According to the 2004 UN Development Program report, South Korea ranked ninth in the world in carbon dioxide emission, recording a staggering 93 percent increase in emissions since 1990, the third highest after China (103 percent) and India (97 percent) in the top 10 countries.
The U.S., which topped the overall list, posted an increase rate of 23 percent. And Germany, the sixth-ranking country, recorded a reduction of 18 percent. Besides the U.S., which refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, South Korea drew attention during the Bali conference as it was the only OECD country not subject to compulsory reduction.
South Korean civic representatives upbraided the government for passivity in joining worldwide efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Representatives of some groups such as the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement and the Citizens Movement for Environmental Justice booed Environment Minister Lee Kyu-yong when he stepped off the podium at the Bali conference. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon specifically called on the South Korean delegation to "set an example in tackling the global warming issue as befits your international status and economic size."
Negotiations dragged on until after the original Friday deadline. Most South Korean government officials except Foreign Ministry officials left for Seoul citing flight schedules. Minister Lee and Shin Boo-nam, the director-general of the International Cooperation Office at the Ministry of Environment who is in charge of the global warming issue for the country, left for Seoul on Saturday morning, when the conference was still under way.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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