Climate target

Climate targets by country

South Korea

The Republic of Korea regularly submits its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, setting mid- and long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and carbon neutrality goals. Korea’s climate targets are discussed across various dimensions, including participation in international climate negotiations, domestic legislation and institutional reforms, and international assessments.

• 2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target (NDC)

When the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, South Korea submitted a target to reduce its Greenhouse gas emissions by 37% from the business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2030. In December 2020, the government submitted an updated NDC to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In October 2021, under the Moon Jae-in administration, the NDC target was raised to a 40% reduction compared to 2018 emission levels. The plan includes sectoral roadmaps for energy, industry, transport, buildings, and waste, as well as management of forests and carbon sinks.

• 2050 Carbon Neutrality Goal

In October 2020, President Moon Jae-in declared in a policy address to the National Assembly that South Korea would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The “2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenarios,” finalized in December 2021, presented two options: a “basic scenario” (phasing out coal gradually) and an “enhanced scenario” (accelerating coal phase-out). In the same year, the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth was enacted, legally defining 2050 carbon neutrality as a national long-term strategy.

• International Evaluation and Criticism

The Climate Action Tracker has rated South Korea’s 2030 target as “Insufficient.” Criticisms include the slow transition to renewable energy, continued reliance on coal-fired power generation, and uncertainty in industrial sector reduction plans. Both the OECD and the IEA have identified energy mix reform and coal phase-out as key challenges in Korea’s climate policy.

Calculation of emissions targets

An emissions target or greenhouse gas emissions reduction target is a central policy instrument of international greenhouse gas emissions reduction politics and a key pillar of climate policy. They typically include heavy consideration of emissions budgets, which are calculated using rate of warming per standard emission of carbon dioxide, a historic baseline temperature, a desired level of confidence and a target global average temperature to stay below.

An "emissions target" may be distinguished from an emissions budget, as an emissions target may be internationally or nationally set in accordance with objectives other than a specific global temperature. This includes targets created for their political palatability, rather than budgets scientifically determined to meet a specific temperature target.

A country's determination of emissions targets is based on careful consideration of pledged NDCs (nationally determined contributions), economic and social feasibility, and political palatability. Carbon budgets can provide political entities with knowledge of how much carbon can be emitted before likely reaching a certain temperature threshold, but specific emissions targets take more into account. The exact way these targets are determined varies widely from country to country. Variation in emissions targets and time to complete them depends on factors such as accounting of land-use emissions, afforestation capacity of a country, and a countries transport emissions. Importantly, emissions targets also depend on their hypothesized reception.

Many emissions pathways, budgets and targets also rely on the implementation of negative emissions technology. These currently undeveloped technologies are predicted to pull net emissions down even as source emissions are not reduced.

Effectiveness

Many countries' emissions targets are above the scientifically calculated allowable emissions to remain below a certain temperature threshold. In 2015, many countries pledged NDCs to limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Many of the largest emitters of GHGs, however, are on track to push global average temperature to as much as 4 °C. Some of these projections contradict agreements made in the 2015 Paris Agreement, meaning countries are not keeping to their pledged NDCs.

In addition, it is uncertain how effective many emissions targets and accompanying policies really are. For example, with countries that have high consumption-based carbon emissions, strictly enforced, aligned and coordinated international policy measures determine the effectiveness of targets. In addition, many ambitious policies are proposed and passed but are not practically enforced or regulated, or have unintended consequences. China's ETS (emissions trading scheme), while seeming to have an effect on reducing production-based emissions also promoted outsourcing of emissions contributing to a further imbalance of carbon transfer among China's different provinces. The ETS evaluation also did not account for exported consumption-based emissions.

Many countries aim to reach net zero emissions in the next few decades. In order to reach this goal however, there must be a radical shift in energy infrastructure. For example, in the United States, political entities are attempting to switch away from coal and oil based energy by replacing plants with natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants. Other countries like the Netherlands were obligated by the District Court of Hague to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. The Court has passed other innovations (Milieudefensie v. Royal Dutch Shell) to reduce dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030. However many find this transition to not be significant enough to reach net-zero emissions. More significant changes, for example using biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) are suggested as a viable option to transition to net-zero emissions countries.