Korea to work with US, Japan to fight climate change

Head of presidential commission shares John Kerry's tripartite climate vision for 2024

Korea will cooperate with the United States and Japan in the areas of renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs), hydrogen and green buildings in 2024 to help fight global climate change, according to the head of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth.

In a recent interview with The Korea Times, the co-chairperson of the commission, Kim Sang-hyup, said that the trilateral cooperation will have a meaningful impact on global environmental policy as the trio account for a significant portion of the global economy.

"If the three of us make a pact to restrict ourselves from burning fossil fuels and fuming carbon emissions, the outcome would carry a far-reaching impact throughout the world," he said. Together the three represent 30 percent of the world's economy and generate nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

To make the evisioned partership happen, Kim said that the three countries will gather in Seoul next year. It will be a follow-up to the historic U.S.-Korea-Japan trilateral summit at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland, last August.

"There will be a business roundtable in the first quarter of next year in Seoul. The Federation of Korean Industries, Japan Business Federation and their counterpart in the U.S. will be here to discuss those topics," said Kim, an invited professor at the College of Business at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

His optimism over a trilateral partnership on environment is based on his recent conversation with John Kerry, the United States special presidential envoy for climate.

"One of the terms they had agreed on in the summit was jointly responding to the climate crisis," said Kim. "I wanted to know if there happened to be specific developments from the U.S. government regarding that agreement. Kerry shared with me the key goals that have been okayed by the U.S. Department of State."

Kerry was emphatic about the promise of the trilateral tie on Nov. 7 at Green Big Bang Prelude 2023, a forum hosted by Korean think tank, Coalition for Our Common Future, foudned by Kim in 2014. In a video clip Kerry sent for the forum's opening ceremony, he said the three countries share a "unique opportunity and responsibility to lead on clean energy innovation and technologies of the future."

Carbon-free initiatives

What has brought Kerry and Kim to the same page is the Carbon-Free (CF) Alliance, an environmental initiative pushed by Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol first mentioned the new global governance model at the UN general assembly in New York last October and officially launched it later that month.

The idea was promoted again by the president during a Seoul-Washington academic forum on clean energy in Seoul on Nov. 13 and also at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco during Nov. 15 to 17. Participants of the UN Climate Change Conference's COP28 in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 will see Korea's top officials elaborating on the initiative once again.

Such active campaigning, according to Kim, is due to the global recognition that 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sectors and that making them carbon-free is undeniably critical for sustainable growth.

But the fledgling initiative has yet to bear authority on countries with varying standards and environmental policies. Renewable energies' chronic intermittence and the varied conditions required to harness them in each country are part of the complex equation carbon-free energies to become a universal solution.

So the alliance should be "technologically neutral" to take advantage of all cutting-edge solutions available for its purpose, according to Kim.

"Technological neutrality is already being enforced in the U.S. with its Inflation Reduction Act which allows carbon-free energies like nuclear power with the same tax exemption reserved for renewable energies. Japan this year has also begun rewriting energy policies by introducing Green Transformation, or GX, to include carbon-free energies," said Kim.

"CF alliance, to arouse international interests, must further work on introducing reasonable and inclusive standards in terms of clean certification guidelines and membership conditions for different countries."

In the Middle East, meanwhile, oil-rich countries are busy with another kind of energy transformation. And Korea is part of it, as was attested by President Yoon's reception in Saudi Arabia and Qatar last October when he and Korean delegation of 130 business leaders signed over 60 deals in clean energies, EVs, smart city projects and other eco-friendly bids with the two nations.

The two countries previously announed a national vision to expand renewable energies' contribution to their domesic power grids by securing up to 59 gigawatts of clean power (Saudi Arabia) or having 20 percent of the entire electricity come from renewable energy (Qatar) by 2030.

"Korean companies represent world-class technologies in solar power, hydrogen and nuclear energies. Their participation in Korea's bilateral deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar in renewable energies and clean hydrogen will certainly spur green growth throughout the Middle East," said Kim.

One promising energy source to drive the global CF campaign, according to Kim, is clean methanol. Depending on how it's made, green and blue methanols are considered clean while grey isn't. The energy took on an official national campaign last month when 67 representatives of local governments, private firms, researchers and associations gathered to launch the new energy initiative.

Grey methanol, made from fossil fuels and some 100 million tons now used each year as fuel for ships and vehicles, can be replaced by clean methanols that generate less carbon emissions. Because shipbuilding, vehicles and petrochemical industry are Korea's competitive areas, harnessing the energy is considered to add extra muscle to the national output.

"Last July, thousand tons of clean methanol was fueled into a Maersk container ship departing Ulsan and bound to Denmark, which was never done in the world, while Last October, the world's first methanol-propelled container ship (built by HD Hyundai) earned its name, Laura Maersk, at Port of Copenhagen," said Kim. "Use of clean methanol is being spread globally, like EU's new ReFuelEU Aviation policy and vehicles completely running on methanol in China. With the new clean methanol initiative now at work in Korea, we should expect some good news from this new energy."

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