Kim Sung-woo
By Kim Sung-woo
On Nov. 23, the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth (herein referred to as Commission) held a plenary meeting to announce its “Plan to Promote Carbon Neutrality through Digital Conversion” (Digital Conversion Plan) to utilize digital technology to achieve carbon neutrality. The commission also announced “Strategies to Create New Clean Methanol Industries” to preemptively push for a transition to eco-friendly fuels and raw materials in Korea’s major industries such as shipping and shipbuilding. The Digital Conversion Plan is divided into two sections: (i) Green by Digital, which aims to introduce technologies and solutions that utilize AI, IoT, and digital twin in energy, transportation, buildings, daily life, agricultural, livestock, fisheries, and wastes, and (ii) Green of Digital, which aims to enhance the efficiency of materials, parts, and equipment, develop low-electricity infrastructure, and develop optimization solutions by utilizing data centers and networks. The Strategies to Create New Clean Methanol Industries aims to produce clean methanol made of green hydrogen with captured CO2 or biomass/biogas at an affordable price by 2030. The short-term goal is to produce 500,000 tons of methanol in Korea, the minimum amount required for refueling at domestic ports. Throughout my time at the Commission, I have sensed that climate technologies are becoming an increasingly more important agenda in the Korean government’s policy direction.
A sound legal framework is essential in developing and harmonizing various types of climate technologies. Fortunately, Korea has already started the legislation process. In October 2021, the Act on Promotion of Technologies in Response to Climate Change (the Climate Technology Act) took effect, laying legal and policy foundations for stable and effective support for developing climate technology. The statute not only defines climate-change response technology but also sets forth grounds for establishing master plans, government support, and training of human resources. The statute serves as a basis for the “Notification on Details of Climate Change Response Technology” (Climate Technology Notification), a set of administrative rules that took effect in September 2022. The Climate Technology Notification added further clarity to the scope of climate-change response technologies within the meaning of the statute, by categorizing the technologies into two groups.
First, greenhouse gas reduction technologies encompass (i) low-carbon energy production technologies such as solar power generation, (ii) alternative fuel and raw material-related technologies such as hydrogen utilization, (iii) energy efficiency technologies such as for building energy, (iv) greenhouse gas removal technologies such as CO2 capture, and (v) energy convergence technologies such as smart grids.
Second, climate change adaptation technologies encompass technologies for (i) observing and predicting climate changes, such as extreme climate diagnosis and detection, (ii) climate change impact assessment for health, ecosystem, and national territory, (iii) preventing infectious disease and forest fires and enhancing climate resilience, and (iv) analyzing the impact of climate change adaptation policies and technology. Korea has also developed the Master Plan for Development of Climate-Change Response Technology in late 2022 pursuant to Article 5 of the Climate Technology Act. The master plan outlines mid- and long-term goals of technology development, policy directions, investment, support for relevant professionals, international cooperation, joint research by industry, academia, and research institutes, and pilot projects. The master plan will guide the central and local government agencies in establishing annual implementation plans and checking their implementation progress. Clearly, Korea has in place the essential foundation for practically supporting climate-change response technologies and their application.
Against this backdrop, various policy roadmaps for each climate technology are up and coming. Last May, the government selected “100 Key Technologies for Carbon Neutrality” to achieve the national carbon neutrality target by 2050. The 100 technologies consist of a total of four sectors, i.e., energy transition, industry, transportation, building-environment, and 17 key areas, i.e., power storage, power grid, energy integration, carbon-free power, hydrogen, nuclear power, solar power, wind power, eco-friendly vehicles, steel, petrochemicals, cement, architecture, ships, environment, industry, and CCUS, to guide the direction of carbon neutrality technology development. Among them, the government announced strategy roadmaps for seven areas (hydrogen, CCUS, carbon-free power, eco-friendly vehicles, petrochemicals, steel, and cement), namely as “Carbon Neutral Technology Innovation Strategy Roadmap.” Designed to secure commercial technology around 2030, the roadmap sets specific step-by-step goals and deadlines, and also requires that prior stages be fulfilled to move on to the next stage of the roadmap. For example, the steel strategy roadmap plans to secure five types of technologies: introduce alternative low-carbon fuels and raw materials for the blast furnace process and basic oxygen furnace process, enhance energy efficiency and introduce low-carbon fuels in the electric furnace process, transition to hydrogen reduction -system, replace coal-based fuels for downstream process with hydrogen and ammonia, and recycle byproducts.
Companies seeking to develop climate technologies need to closely monitor the legislative landscape surrounding climate change and check relevant policy roadmaps. Doing so is essential in aligning the company’s business strategy with the larger regulatory environment, which would enable the company to tap into opportunities for substantial regulatory support and also mitigate legal risks. For example, companies may consider comparing various types of technology set forth in the Climate Technology Notification with the technologies they aim to develop or secure. Companies can also think about how to connect their business strategies with the government’s roadmaps for the seven key areas for carbon neutrality technologies to gauge the proper and realistic timing to commercialize their technologies. Now that global competition to be the front-runner in the climate technology is in full swing, companies need to keep up with the evolving legislative system supporting the technologies.
Kim Sung-woo is head of Environment & Energy Research Institute at Kim & Chang.
Climate technology legislation helps companies focus on roadmaps
20
1
10.12.2023
Kim Sung-woo
By Kim Sung-wooOn Nov. 23, the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth (herein referred to as Commission) held a plenary meeting to announce its “Plan to Promote Carbon Neutrality through Digital Conversion” (Digital Conversion Plan) to utilize digital technology to achieve carbon neutrality. The commission also announced “Strategies to Create New Clean Methanol Industries” to preemptively push for a transition to eco-friendly fuels and raw materials in Korea’s major industries such as shipping and shipbuilding. The Digital Conversion Plan is divided into two sections: (i) Green by Digital, which aims to introduce technologies and solutions that utilize AI, IoT, and digital twin in energy, transportation, buildings, daily life, agricultural, livestock, fisheries, and wastes, and (ii) Green of Digital, which aims to enhance the efficiency of materials, parts, and equipment, develop low-electricity infrastructure, and develop optimization solutions by utilizing data centers and networks. The Strategies to Create New Clean Methanol Industries aims to produce clean methanol made of green hydrogen with captured CO2 or biomass/biogas at an affordable price by 2030. The short-term goal is to produce 500,000 tons of methanol in Korea, the minimum amount required for refueling at domestic ports. Throughout my time at the Commission, I have sensed that climate technologies are becoming an increasingly more important agenda in the Korean government’s policy direction.
A sound legal framework is essential in developing and harmonizing various types of climate technologies. Fortunately, Korea has already started........
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