User:Hosuniii/Air pollution in South Korea

Green Growth Policy
Green Growth is an idea that was first brought up in 2009. It was the concept that countries will embrace more environmentally friendly alternatives to motivate growth as the two concepts, green and growth go hand in hand. Despite Green Growth being a concept in the making, it contains the two components that makes it a part of sustainable development: growth and environment. South Korea was one of the first countries to diligently integrate green growth into their national strategy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG), pollution, and unnecessary usage of nonrenewable energy. By following the values of the Green Growth Policy that gave rise to the Framework Act on Low Carbon Green Growth in 2009, South Korea set its goals to be seventh in Green World Power by 2020 and fifth in 2050.

Before the Green Growth Policy, 96% of South Korea’s energy sources had been imported. In order to honor their new policy, South Korean politicians worked to encourage energy independence while promoting green technologies and the new industry’s green structure. To highlight green technologies, green lifestyles, transportation (public buses and intricate subway systems) along with sustainable water and land use were introduced to the South Korean citizens.

Despite the movement of the Green Growth Policy, there are flaws in the goals that are set to reduce the usage of nonrenewable energy. For example, President Lee Myeong Bak's target of increasing South Korea's renewable usage to 20.1% by 2029 is lackluster considering that other countries such as Sweden has set their goal for a 100% of their energy to come from renewable sources. Some countries like Costa Rica and Scotland have been successful in generating 97-98% of their energy from renewable energy sources.

Five Year Action Plan
The Five Year Action Plan was a plan that was introduced to help initiate the Green Growth Policy and kickstart green technological advancements. The Five Year Action Plan prioritized urban planning, buildings, and transportation and took place in 2009 till 2013. Not only did the Five Year Action Plan work to promote and create a new market for new and renewable energy (NRE) but it also helped to create almost 960,000 green jobs which ultimately helped the country overcome an economic crisis. Jobs were created for development of certain green technologies such as silicon based solar cells and smart grids.

Although South Korea has been dedicating around 2% of their GDP annually (23 billion USD), almost double the recommended amount suggested by the UN, private investments were needed to invest in NRE. The private investments assisted in creating a market and creating a flow of supply and demand for NRE technologies. During this phase, almost 30 different South Korean companies had invested approximately 13.6 billion USD in NRE technologies. The investments from the private businesses positively impacted on reducing GHG emissions by marketing green technology. According to the environmental investment assessment of GHG that was launched in 2010, roughly 11.47 million tons of GHG emissions from their annual emission of 595.95 million tons of GHG has been reduced due to the development of 53 new businesses in the green technology field.