“The cabinet meeting of today marks a historic moment,” said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, on 17 November, announcing that Seoul would cut, by 2020, its projected greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Following several months of fierce discussions with industry, the Conservative leader, former CEO of Hyundai, imposed the most ambitious of the three scenarios that were on the table, triggering vocal criticism from a number of major Korean firms. This political decision puts Asia’s fourth largest economy at the forefront of the developing countries in the climate talks, increasing the pressure on other major emerging players who refuse to set emission cut goals ahead of the Copenhagen conference.

Since South Korea is not an ‘Annex 1’ country under the Kyoto Protocol, it had no obligation to put forward a target for CO ₂ emission cuts. But Seoul, which will chair the G20 in 2010, sees the climate change talks as an opportunity to assert its role on the global scene by becoming “a bridge between developing and developed countries”. The pledge announced by the president amounts to a 4% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2005. South Korea emitted 594 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005, ranking ninth among member nations of the OECD. The goal is far less ambitious than that set by the EU, which takes 1990 as a reference year, but it was nevertheless hailed by supporters of a global climate pact, since it could give a new impetus to the international talks. “We want to play a constructive role in Copenhagen,” said Kim Sang-hyup, secretary-general of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth, adding that Seoul wants to move ahead with its plan regardless of the outcome of the post-Kyoto negotiations

However, the announcement provoked mixed reactions among the leading Korean chaebols [business conglomerates]. While firms, such as Samsung or Hyundai, are encouraging the presidential ‘green push’, energy-intensive industries consider the target over-ambitious. “The target is very challenging,” said POSCO, the world’s third largest steel maker. “Industry fears that this commitment will hamper competitiveness,” Kang Hee-chan, expert at the Samsung Economic Research Institute, told Europolitics.For its part, the government believes that the ambitious target will help the Korean industry to move ahead and maintain its edge against China.

In order to bypass opposition, the government is likely to shelter energy-intensive industries from drastic cuts, while asking more of the transportation and construction sectors, believes Professor Kim Jeongin of Chung-Ang University. He fears that the ambitious goal will never be met, since the government wants to favour incentives over binding measures, such as carbon tax or a ‘cap and trade’ mechanism. Tough discussions are expected in 2010 over burden-sharing among the various industrial sectors as well as regarding the concrete measures needed to reach the 2020 goals. “We need more consultations,” commented Kim Sang-hyup.