Government Focuses on Industrial Transformation in Industry, Energy, Transportation, Infrastructure, and Waste for Carbon Neutrality... Emphasizes Talent Development and Safety Net Strengthening

Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of Science and ICT, and Ministry of Education Jointly Announce 2022 Work Plan for 'Korean New Deal, Carbon Neutrality'

Acceleration of Major Social and Economic Structural Transformation
Strengthening Implementation Foundations through Green Finance, Green Technology Development, and Practice Culture Expansion
Promotion of Digital Economy through Data Dam and Nationwide 5G Network Expansion

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Ju Sang-don] The government has marked the first year for implementing '2050 Carbon Neutrality' and the '2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target' by focusing on supporting the transition in five sectors: industry, energy, transportation, infrastructure, and waste. By actively supporting the green transition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies, the government plans to lay the foundation for carbon neutrality and promote the transition through the expansion of renewable energy.

On the 28th, five ministries including the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of Science and ICT, and Ministry of Education jointly announced the '2022 Work Plan' under the theme of 'Korean New Deal, Carbon Neutrality,' containing these details.

Minister Han Jeong-ae of the Ministry of Environment stated, "The 2022 work plan focuses on accelerating the major transformation of our society by expanding the accumulated achievements in eco-friendly, digital, and human investment sectors, solidifying Korea's leading position in global competition such as carbon neutrality, and firmly securing the future of the Republic of Korea. Additionally, it aims to nurture creative talents who will lead the future and strengthen safety nets to ensure that no person or region is left behind, allowing citizens to enjoy daily life on a safer and more reliable foundation."

To achieve these goals, the five ministries will focus on five core tasks: ▲ Transition of social and economic structures to carbon neutrality ▲ Strengthening the foundation for carbon neutrality implementation ▲ Promoting transition to a digital economy ▲ Fostering new industries and new technologies based on the New Deal ▲ Cultivating innovative talents leading the major transformation.

First, the government will promote carbon neutrality transition across all sectors of society. In 2022, it plans to focus on supporting the transition in five sectors: industry, energy, transportation, infrastructure, and waste.

The strategy is to lay the foundation for carbon neutrality by actively promoting the green transition of the industrial sector. This includes supporting green transition for SMEs and mid-sized companies through initiatives such as support for carbon-neutral facilities at workplaces (Ministry of Environment·87.9 billion KRW), clean factory dissemination (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy·cumulative 750 factories), and smart ecological factory conversion (Ministry of Environment·cumulative 100 factories). It also plans to foster promising green companies (including dedicated financing) and promote cooperation between large and small-medium enterprises through recognition of external reduction performance in the emissions trading system and free transfer of patented technologies (technology sharing) by large companies.

Additionally, the government will institutionalize carbon neutrality in cooperation with the industrial sector by enacting the Carbon Neutral Industrial Transition Promotion Special Act, which includes establishing basic plans for the industrial sector, promoting transition, creating new markets, and special provisions. It will accelerate low-carbon innovation in manufacturing sectors such as eco-friendly ships (shipbuilding), hydrogen reduction steelmaking (steel), low-carbon chemical materials, and zero-emission machinery development to strengthen future competitiveness.

The government will also promote carbon neutrality transition through the expansion of clean energy. To this end, it will accelerate the spread of renewable energy by revising the Renewable Energy Act to establish appropriate separation distance standards for solar and wind power and implement one-stop permits. Following the establishment of system reinforcement plans such as substations in the first half of next year, it plans to build a stable power grid and distributed energy system by mandating distributed energy installation in 2023.

The government has raised the supply targets for zero-emission vehicles to 446,000 electric vehicles and 54,000 hydrogen vehicles by next year, aiming to open the era of 500,000 vehicles (cumulative) through efficient fiscal support. To create a charging environment more convenient than gas stations, it will expand charging infrastructure (160,000 electric chargers and 310 hydrogen stations) and promote demonstration of new technologies such as wireless charging and battery swapping.

The government will also pursue the realization of a zero-waste circular economy. It will reduce waste at all stages of production, distribution, and consumption, implement a deposit system for disposable cups, and expand material recycling (recycling raw materials), chemical recycling (pyrolysis), and heat recovery from incineration facilities for plastic waste. Furthermore, it will expand the distribution of eco-friendly buoys to achieve 100% conversion by 2024 and support the stabilization of the fishing gear mass collection system and fishing gear and buoy deposit system, which will be implemented sequentially from 2023, to prevent marine waste generation in advance.

To strengthen the foundation for carbon neutrality implementation, the government plans to firmly establish the foundation for Korea's carbon neutrality implementation with the enforcement (March 2022) of the 'Basic Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth in Response to the Climate Crisis,' which was legislated in September this year as the 14th in the world.

From next year, it will establish green investment with the financial sector through pilot projects applying the Green Taxonomy (K-Taxonomy) and support for external review costs of green bonds (100 cases in 2022). It will expand the scope of environmental information disclosure from companies with total assets of 2 trillion KRW next year to those with 500 billion KRW or more by 2027, and to all KOSPI-listed companies by 2030, enhancing linkage with financial disclosure and establishing credible environmental assessment standards.

To strengthen research and development (R&D) for securing technologies necessary for carbon neutrality, government R&D funding for the carbon neutrality sector will be expanded to 1.9274 trillion KRW in 2022. Large-scale preliminary feasibility studies will be conducted for core carbon neutrality technologies such as hydrogen reduction steelmaking, bio-based raw material conversion, and secondary batteries.

The government will also promote the spread of carbon neutrality practices. It will newly introduce a 'Carbon Neutral Practice Point System' that accumulates and utilizes points for electronic receipts, use of refill stations, use of reusable containers, and eco-friendly car rentals to spread a nationwide carbon neutrality practice culture. It will strengthen the bottom-up implementation foundation through multifaceted support such as designating and operating carbon neutrality support centers for local governments (17 cities and provinces).

For enhancing carbon absorption functions, the government will manage carbon sinks. On land, it will prepare land-use change maps for integrated management of carbon sinks and restore damaged areas within protected zones to enhance the carbon absorption capacity of the national territory. In the marine sector, it will build statistical bases for blue carbon absorbed by tidal flats (absorbing carbon equivalent to 110,000 cars annually) and seaweed, expand restoration of tidal flats and vegetation, and create sea forests. It also plans to discover new sinks such as continental shelves.

Based on the achievements of the Digital New Deal so far, the government will also promote the transition to a digital economy based on 'Data, Network, and Artificial Intelligence (D.N.A.)' across society.

It will support large-scale utilization of high-quality data through expansion of the data dam (adding 310 types of AI training data), increased voucher support (3,930 cases in 2022), and construction of the digital knowledge platform 'Digital Jiphyeonjeon' for all citizens. It will also expand the use of AI ambulances for emergency patient transport nationwide (9.9 billion KRW in 2022) to spread precision medicine using AI, discover and disseminate 100 leading cases of digital transformation in the industrial sector to enhance industrial competitiveness, and promote digital convergence in marine and fisheries sites such as ports, logistics, fish farms, and processing plants through smart aquaculture clusters.

The government will also foster new industries and new technologies based on the Korean New Deal. To leap forward as a leading clean hydrogen nation, it will build a full-cycle ecosystem for hydrogen production, transportation, storage, and utilization, foster the used battery industry, and realize a super-gap in the secondary battery sector through development of high-performance and high-safety technologies (preliminary feasibility study underway). It will also expand robot demonstration and dissemination in various areas such as daily life and industrial sites.

For fostering hyper-connected new industries, it will build a super-regional hub for metaverse platform development and corporate support in urban (online virtual tours), education (virtual classroom immersive education), and manufacturing (virtualized production factories). It will also secure competitiveness in hyper-connected fields by expanding public and private cloud transitions, supporting the use of super-large artificial intelligence (AI), and fostering research ecosystems for 6G and quantum technologies.

Along with this, the government will accelerate the major transformation to future education from elementary, middle, and high schools to universities and lifelong education to cultivate talents leading national major transitions such as digital and carbon neutrality. It will equip all learning spaces (380,000 rooms) in elementary, middle, and high schools with gigabit wireless networks by February next year and promote the construction of the 'K-Edu Integrated Platform' linking and integrating private and public edutech services.

To broadly cultivate innovative talents, it will strengthen the role of universities in talent development through digital new technology 'Innovation Shared Universities' (46 universities in 2022) that share and open educational resources, and the '3-stage Industry-Academia-Research Cooperation Leading University Development Project' (2022-2027, 134 universities) that nurtures industry-customized talents. Furthermore, to strengthen the talent development system based on inter-ministerial collaboration, it will comprehensively organize and summarize each ministry's policies into a 'Basic Strategy for Talent Development (tentative)' in the first half of next year and plan and promote joint collaborative projects among ministries.

Minister Han said, "Carbon neutrality is not a choice but a necessity for survival and the future of the Republic of Korea, and the Korean New Deal is a ladder and stepping stone that turns crisis into opportunity. All ministries will unite their efforts to ensure that our steps toward the Korean New Deal and carbon neutrality do not stop and continue steadily."

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