Ministry of Industry Expands Energy Saving Campaign with Local Governments

'Reducing 1kWh a Day' Nationwide
Efficiency Innovation Cooperation by Local Government Characteristics
Energy Welfare Support for Vulnerable Groups

The government is launching a nationwide campaign to reduce energy consumption by ‘1 kWh (kilowatt-hour) per day’ along with major local governments to promote energy-saving initiatives.

On the morning of the 19th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 'Central-Local Energy Efficiency Innovation Council' at the Government Seoul Office, attended by 17 metropolitan local governments, to discuss these matters. The main agenda includes cooperating with local governments on three fronts: nationwide expansion of energy-saving campaigns such as ‘reducing 1 kWh per day’ at the regional level, expanding policies tailored to specific areas such as industrial complexes, large buildings, and rural fishing villages, and strengthening community efforts to improve efficiency for vulnerable groups.

Minister Lee Chang-yang stated in his opening remarks, “The global energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war last year continues to impose a heavy burden on the domestic economy overall, including large-scale trade deficits, high inflation, and exchange rates,” and added, “With oil-producing countries announcing production cuts and China resuming economic activities, international energy prices are expected to remain highly volatile this year.”

He explained, “As economic activities and daily life recovered after COVID-19, energy consumption increased by 6.2% in 2021 compared to the previous year, but last year, despite the ongoing economic recovery, it actually decreased by 1.5%. In particular, the energy intensity, which is the energy consumption relative to GDP, reversed from a 1.3% deterioration in 2021 to a 2.5% improvement in 2022, achieving the highest efficiency level ever recorded.” Minister Lee added, “It can be said that the comprehensive efforts to promote saving and efficiency improvement policies, along with strengthening price signals through tariff adjustments, have led to actual reductions in energy consumption and improvements in efficiency.”

Minister Lee emphasized, “These achievements would have been difficult without the efforts of local governments in reducing energy use in public institutions during winter, improving efficiency in industry and buildings, and supporting heating costs for vulnerable groups,” and stressed, “As improvements in the energy consumption structure become visible, stronger efforts toward energy efficiency innovation are necessary to establish a fundamentally high-efficiency economic and social structure.”

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