South Korea’s secretary for future vision is considering how many of his people it takes to change a million lightbulbs. No joke.
Kim Sang-hyo, the president’s right-hand man, is trying to create more than 940 000 green jobs and improve his country’s energy efficiency at the same time. Switching every bulb in every public building in South Korea to light-emitting diodes by the end of this year is one, very small, element in the master plan of what has been described as the greenest new deal on the planet.
Since the start of the financial crisis last year governments across the globe have been talking up the environmental content of their fiscal stimulus programmes and being judged by their efforts to save the planet.
United States President Barack Obama and the Chinese government have been praised for their ambitious plans to invest in renewable power, clean transport and energy-efficient buildings. Britain, by contrast, has been castigated for the relatively miserly sums it has so far committed to green projects.
But no matter what the United Kingdom promises, it will pale in comparison with the green boasts of South Korea’s 50-trillion won ($36.4-billion) plan. According to an international ranking by the bank HSBC, 81% of the money is earmarked for green projects, easily the highest proportion in the world and vastly more than the 7% share in the UK.
So how will South Korea spend all that money? The first challenge for Kim is coordinating how this huge sum — equivalent to 2.6% of British GDP — should be doled out. He must face both drooling construction industry conglomerates and suspicious environmental groups while creating jobs and lifting a nosediving economy. Many Koreans believe the apparently green spending will turn out to be heavily grey.
At his office in the presidential Blue House, Kim says he is tasked with a fundamental restructuring of the South Korean economy and energy structure, which is 97% dependent on expensive imported fuel. “The president realises that now is the time for change,” he says.
Over the next four years the government promises to build a million green homes, improve the energy efficiency of a million more, invest $1.8-billion in research into low-carbon technologies and spend $7.1-billion on high-speed railways and other forms of “clean” transport.
More than 4 000km of bicycle expressways will be built, including a 280km stretch alongside the demilitarised zone boundary with North Korea. By 2020 expanded subway, railway and electric car ownership is expected to reduce greenhouse gases from transport by 20%. The forestry sector will employ an extra 50 000 people to increase carbon sink capacity and build the country’s first wood pellet fuel mill. —