Jeonnam Province Accelerates Efforts to Host COP33 in the Southern Coastal and Central Southern Regions

Jeonnam Province is accelerating efforts to host COP33 in the southern coastal and southern central regions.

According to the province on the 20th, Jeonnam is conducting the World Climate Cities Forum in Yeosu for sustainable development, while consecutively holding cooperation meetings to attract the 33rd United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) to the southern coastal and southern central regions.

Jeonnam Province and Gyeongnam Province signed a win-win development agreement in April last year and have been working closely together to jointly attract the 33rd UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to the southern coastal and southern central regions.

At the cooperation meeting held that day, 12 officials from cities and counties in Jeonnam and Gyeongnam attended, pledging success in the joint bid and sharing various opinions.

Lee Sang-hoon, Chairperson of the COP33 Southern Coastal and Southern Central Regions Citizens’ Promotion Committee, gave a lecture, and Jeonnam Province shared the results of attending the 28th Conference held in Dubai.

Following this, various discussions continued on topics such as enacting ordinances to support the bid for establishing institutional and administrative foundations for the joint bid, securing human network resources and budget support plans, and activity strategies.

Subsequently, through open discussions and Q&A sessions, suggestions from city and county officials were heard, and opinions among local governments were exchanged.

The province plans to continuously strengthen the work-sharing and collaboration system among participating local governments, as hosting the 33rd Conference is a golden opportunity for Yeosu and the southern coastal and southern central regions to stand out as international cities leading global climate and environmental changes.

Jung Chan-gyun, Head of the Eastern Regional Headquarters of Jeonnam Province, said, “It is especially meaningful that a forum examining country-specific urban strategies for achieving carbon-neutral cities was held at a time when all efforts are being made to spread the atmosphere for hosting the 33rd Conference.”

He added, “We will establish project plans to ensure that Mokpo, Yeosu, Suncheon, and Sinan, which have been selected as preliminary target sites for the carbon-neutral creation project, a key government initiative, are chosen as final sites. We will devote all efforts to the joint bid for the 33rd Conference and actively discover climate crisis response policies to realize carbon neutrality by 2050, thereby advancing toward a sustainable future.”

The World Climate Cities Forum is being held until the 21st under the theme “Urban Policy Strategies Centered on Energy Transition and Nature-Based Solutions for Achieving Carbon-Neutral Cities (Transition to Carbon-Neutral Cities).”

The forum is co-hosted by ICLEI Korea Office, FOM University of Applied Sciences (a German vocational and lifelong education institution) and the Energy Security and Climate Change Regional Program, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Asia-Pacific region), with support from the Delegation of the European Union to Korea and the Yeosu Carbon Neutral Practice Coalition.

The forum was organized to establish a cooperative foundation for joint climate action and to strengthen policy capabilities for carbon neutrality by 2050 by sharing climate crisis awareness among world cities.

At the forum, experts from six cities in six countries including Korea, Germany, and Southeast Asia, as well as international organization officials, participated in presentations on urban energy transition cases and participant workshops. On the 21st, presentations on excellent cases of cities applying nature-based solutions and panel discussions on core strategies and implications for eco-friendly cities will follow.

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