Gwangju City Launches Public-Private Partnership Governance 'Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee'

Jung Young-il, Co-Representative of Climate Crisis Emergency Action, "Launching Citizen Practice Movement This Year"

Mayor Lee Yong-seop, "Realizing Citizen-Led Green Decentralization... Let's Make Gwangju a Better Place to Live"

Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the launch ceremony of the 2045 Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee held on the morning of the 25th at the city hall's main conference room and announced the 2021 action plan for the carbon-neutral city. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City has launched the Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee, a public-private governance body, taking a strong first step toward the citizen-led “2045 Carbon Neutral Energy Self-Reliant City.”

On the morning of the 25th, Gwangju held the launch ceremony of the “Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee” in the city hall’s main conference room and announced the inaugural execution plan for promoting the “2045 Carbon Neutral Energy Self-Reliant City.”

The event was attended by about 50 key figures, including Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City; Yang Hyang-ja, Member of the National Assembly; Kim Yong-jip, Chair of the Gwangju City Council; Jang Hwi-guk, Superintendent of Education; Kim Kwang-ran, Chair of the Green New Deal Special Committee of the City Council; Jeong Young-il, Co-Representative of Emergency Action; and representatives of civic groups.

So far, 113 civic and social organizations formed the Climate Crisis Emergency Action to propose various citizen ideas on carbon neutrality, and the Gwangju City Council supported this by establishing the “Green New Deal Special Committee.” Based on this, the Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee, a public-private cooperative governance body involving representatives from the city, education office, city council, and civic organizations, was launched.

The newly launched Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee serves as the highest decision-making body for promoting the “citizen-led carbon neutral energy self-reliant city,” gathering the capabilities of the Gwangju community and overseeing carbon neutrality policies. The agreed matters in the committee will be implemented through the Carbon Neutral City Promotion Task Force, led by the Deputy Mayor for Administration, ensuring policy execution.

On this day, Mayor Lee Yong-seop announced the inaugural execution plan for the “2045 Carbon Neutral Energy Self-Reliant City,” aiming to invest a total of 758.9 billion KRW in 94 projects across six sectors?energy transition, buildings, transportation and traffic, resource circulation, agriculture and livestock, and carbon sinks?to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons, which is 10.5% of the projected 9.47 million tons.

According to the plan, in the energy transition sector, the city will vigorously promote the “One Household, One Power Plant” campaign as part of “Producing and Using My Own Electricity” to greatly expand citizen-participatory eco-friendly renewable energy; create new private-sector-centered business models through the “ESS Regulatory Free Zone”; install “Citizen Solar Power Plants” funded and participated in directly by citizens; and actively develop “Energy Transition Villages” for village-level energy self-reliance.

In the building sector, to transition to eco-friendly green buildings, the city will implement the “Green Remodeling” project to improve energy efficiency and residential environments of national and public daycare centers and aging public rental apartments; and conduct a leading “Energy Target Management System” in the public sector, aiming to reduce emissions by 32% compared to this year’s baseline.

In the transportation and traffic sector, the city will pilot the “Unmanned Public Bicycle System” in the Sangmu district, expand eco-friendly transportation means such as hydrogen and electric vehicles, and support early retirement of old diesel vehicles.

Additionally, in the resource circulation, agriculture and livestock, and carbon sink sectors, the city will operate the “Environmental Facility Carbon Neutral Program” by installing solar power facilities at sewage treatment plants and introducing greenhouse gas monitoring systems; supply eco-friendly organic fertilizers to foster eco-friendly urban agriculture; and continue planting 30 million trees to provide ecological and recreational spaces within a 10-minute distance for families.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated, “The carbon neutral energy self-reliant city can only be achieved when our 1.5 million Gwangju community responds to the era’s mission of addressing the climate crisis.” He proposed, “Through this year’s realization of citizen-led green decentralization, let us unite the Gwangju community to create the safest, cleanest, and most livable global green city, Gwangju.”

Following this, Jeong Young-il, co-representative of the Climate Crisis Emergency Citizen Action and appointed as a citizen representative of the Promotion Committee, expressed, “I hope that the sacrifices and efforts of the Gwangju community to escape the existential crisis of humanity through achieving the 2045 Carbon Neutral Energy Self-Reliant City will be recorded in history as a global exemplary case.” He also pledged, “We will carry out the 2021 practice campaign, including ‘Let’s produce and use the electricity we consume.’”

Meanwhile, at the launch ceremony, members of the Carbon Neutral Promotion Committee attracted attention to new upcycling production and culture by wearing clothes made from recycled fabric discarded by the Gwangju Social Cooperative, adding artistic and practical value to recycling.

Starting with the launch of this Carbon Neutral City Promotion Committee, Gwangju plans to finalize the “Gwangju-type AI-Green New Deal” implementation system and inaugural execution plan, and actively attempt a major transformation into the nation’s first decarbonized clean city.

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