Seoul City Introduces Total Emission Cap for Greenhouse Gas 'Focused Management' in Large Buildings... Citizen Briefing on the 25th

Sharing the Purpose and Progress of Introducing the 'Building Greenhouse Gas Cap System'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 20th that it will hold a public briefing session at Seosomun Government Complex on the 25th to build public consensus on the ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade System,’ which focuses on managing greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings.

Currently, the building sector accounts for 68.7% of greenhouse gas emissions in the Seoul area. Among them, commercial and public buildings with a total floor area of 3,000㎡ or more make up only 2.1% (13,000 buildings) of all buildings in Seoul (about 600,000 buildings), but emit 26.5% of the building sector’s greenhouse gases. Therefore, management of these buildings is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of greenhouse gas reduction.

Accordingly, Seoul City is promoting the introduction of the ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade System’ to intensively manage and reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions of medium and large buildings with a total floor area of 3,000㎡ or more. The ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade System’ classifies buildings into 12 types according to their use and sets standard greenhouse gas emission limits per unit area for each type to ensure compliance.

Currently, energy usage data is being analyzed for 651 buildings, including 498 public buildings managed by Seoul City and 153 private buildings participating voluntarily, and procedures are underway to establish standard usage criteria by building type.

This briefing session was organized to explain the purpose of introducing the cap-and-trade system and share progress with energy-intensive building managers, academia, related organizations, and the general public before the full-scale design and implementation of the building greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system. The session will begin with a ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Reduction Declaration,’ demonstrating the voluntary participation willingness of energy-intensive building stakeholders, and a ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Reduction Practice Expression Event’ with Kim Eui-seung, Seoul City’s First Deputy Mayor for Administration.

Before the detailed explanation of the system, a lecture titled ‘Understanding the Causes and Trends of Climate Change’ will be given by author and Soongsil Cyber University professor Kwak Jae-sik to help citizens easily understand the climate crisis and the need for greenhouse gas reduction. This will be followed by an introduction to exemplary cases of greenhouse gas reduction in the building sector. LG Science Park (Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu) has introduced the latest energy-saving facilities and efficiency improvement technologies across various fields, achieving Korea’s highest building energy efficiency rating ‘1+++’ and the highest level ‘Platinum’ certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system.

Hwang In-chang, a research fellow at the Seoul Institute conducting the ‘Development of Building Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade System Implementation Model’ project, will present the purpose and implementation plan of the building greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system, fostering understanding and consensus on the necessity of the system. Kim Eui-seung, Seoul City’s First Deputy Mayor for Administration, stated, “The introduction of the ‘Building Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade System’ is essential for carbon neutrality in the building sector, which accounts for the largest portion of Seoul’s greenhouse gas emissions. We will continue to create open communication channels to listen to diverse opinions from citizens and experts so that the system can be accepted by the public.”

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