"Over 70% of SMEs Prepared for Carbon Neutrality Response"

Notable Improvement in Awareness of Carbon Neutral Transition Among SMEs

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Chairman Kim Jong-ho, hereinafter referred to as Kibo) announced on the 27th the results of a survey on the "Low-Carbon and Eco-Friendly Management Status of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)" conducted on its client companies.

According to the survey results from 558 respondents out of 3,724 target companies, 62.5% of the respondents were aware of carbon neutrality, and 74.6% of the companies responded that it is necessary to respond to carbon neutrality. Only 6.6% of companies answered that a response was not necessary.

In particular, while more than 50% of SMEs reported no preparation plans for carbon neutrality and low-carbon, eco-friendly management in a survey by another institution earlier this year, the proportion of SMEs with "no preparation plans" decreased significantly to 28.3% one year after the carbon neutrality declaration. Companies planning to prepare in the future (44.1%), currently preparing (24.4%), and already prepared (3.2%) totaled 71.7%.

Furthermore, regarding the impact of domestic and international policies such as carbon neutrality policy promotion on companies, positive impacts accounted for 41.0%, surpassing the negative impacts of 36.9%. The reasons for positive impacts included building an eco-friendly corporate image and increasing sales through securing technological competitiveness.

This is understood to be the result of continuous promotion and communication by the government about the urgency and importance of carbon neutrality since the 2050 carbon neutrality declaration, leading to improved awareness among SMEs. Kibo explained that SMEs recognize carbon neutrality policies as new growth opportunities to secure competitiveness.

Chairman Kim Jong-ho of Kibo stated, "We will actively respond to the government's carbon neutrality promotion policies to support them while proactively addressing the increased burden on SMEs due to the carbon neutrality transition." He added, "Using the carbon value evaluation model developed domestically for the first time, Kibo will discover small and medium venture companies possessing greenhouse gas reduction technologies or pursuing carbon emission reductions and introduce climate response guarantees that preferentially support them based on carbon reduction effects. In 2022, we will support new guarantees worth 500 billion KRW."

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