Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee Recommends 20th Administrative Innovation: Achieving a 2050 Carbon Neutral City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee, directly under the Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City (Chairman Ju Jeong-min), has finalized the goal of ‘Achieving a Carbon Neutral City by 2050 Leading Climate Crisis Response’ and will recommend it to Gwangju Metropolitan City on the 20th.

This innovation recommendation is the twentieth since the Innovation Promotion Committee was launched on November 27, 2018, as an advisory body directly under the mayor, following recommendations and proposals on public institution innovation, activation of municipal art groups, smart manufacturing innovation, establishment of the Gwangju welfare model, establishment of an industrial policy platform, low birthrate countermeasures, and creation of startup and venture clusters.

In the trend of countries around the world strengthening environmental regulations, responding to the climate crisis is necessary not only to secure regional industrial competitiveness but also to guarantee Article 35 of the Constitution, which states ‘All citizens have the right to live in a healthy and pleasant environment,’ determining the survival of future generations as well as the quality of life of our generation.

In particular, Gwangju, a pilot city for climate change response (2008 Ministry of Environment agreement), is pursuing greenhouse gas reduction policies; however, the annual average growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions is about 1.6%, indicating the need for groundbreaking measures.

Accordingly, the Innovation Promotion Committee recommends 37 innovation tasks under four basic directions aimed at ‘Achieving a Carbon Neutral City by 2050 Leading Climate Crisis Response’: ▲ Declaration of a climate crisis emergency, establishment of response strategies, and strengthening of implementation systems ▲ Development of specific measures by sector such as energy, buildings, transportation, and food ▲ Establishment and activation of a citizen-led local resource circulation execution system ▲ Building a decarbonized (environmental and eco-friendly) industry and economic base linked with the government’s Green New Deal policy.

Going forward, the Innovation Promotion Committee will require the city, which received the 13th municipal innovation recommendation, to prepare and report detailed implementation plans within three months, and will continuously monitor to ensure that the innovation recommendations and proposals delivered to the city so far are reflected in municipal administration through systems such as the municipal innovation recommendation implementation status management card.

Ju Jeong-min, Chairman of the Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee, said, “The climate crisis is not a future issue but an ongoing one. We recommended that climate crisis response measures be prepared across all municipal administration to secure regional industrial and economic competitiveness and improve citizens’ quality of life,” adding, “We will continue to work with the Innovation Promotion Committee members to ensure that Gwangju can respond promptly to changes in the administrative environment represented by the new normal of the post-COVID-19 era.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.