Next Year's Ministry of Environment Total Expenditure to Increase by 3.3% to 14.8 Trillion Won... "Focused Response to Extreme Heavy Rain"

2025 Ministry of Environment Budget Announcement
6.4 Trillion Won Invested in Water Management... "Focused Response to Extreme Rainfall"
Clean Budget with 4.5% Increase in Zero-Emission Vehicle Funding
EV Subsidy Reduced by 1 Million Won but Eligibility Expanded

The Ministry of Environment's budget and fund expenditures for next year have been decided at 14.8 trillion KRW, a 3.3% increase from this year. About half of this, 6.4 trillion KRW, will be spent on ‘water management’ projects such as river maintenance and dam construction. The budgets for carbon neutrality and green industries increased by 4.7% and 20.9%, respectively. A total of 3.2 trillion KRW was allocated for the transition to zero-emission vehicles.

On the 27th, the Ministry of Environment announced that the total expenditure of its budget and funds for next year is 14.8262 trillion KRW. The budget is 13.0094 trillion KRW, a 4% increase from this year, but various fund budgets decreased by 1.44% to 1.8168 trillion KRW. Son Ok-ju, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Environment, said, “Despite the challenging fiscal conditions, next year’s Ministry of Environment budget was increased at a rate exceeding the government’s total expenditure growth rate.”

By sector, the water management budget was the largest at 6.4135 trillion KRW, up 343.9 billion KRW (5.7%) from this year. The resource circulation sector showed the steepest increase, rising 24.9% (65.2 billion KRW) to 327 billion KRW. The climate and carbon budget was 4.6266 trillion KRW (2.9%), and the general environment budget was 562.4 billion KRW. Budgets for resource environment and environmental health & chemicals decreased by 5.7% (788.3 billion KRW) and 1.3% (291.6 billion KRW), respectively, compared to this year.

Expenditure restructuring prioritized projects with poor execution rates for elimination first, followed by projects with reduced demand due to changing times. In the fund sector, it was explained that since revenue was expected to decrease by 85.6 billion KRW, expenditures were cut accordingly.

6.4 Trillion KRW Invested in Water Management: "Focused Response to Extreme Heavy Rain"

The water management budget will be intensively invested in responding to extreme heavy rain. The maintenance budget for local rivers designated as national rivers was expanded from 10.3 billion KRW to 53.5 billion KRW, and the maintenance budget for tributaries and streams affected by rising water levels was increased from 36.8 billion KRW to 68.8 billion KRW. The budget for national river maintenance projects targeting flood-vulnerable urban areas increased by 82.3% to 107 billion KRW next year. Additionally, the construction budgets for Hangsa Dam and Bonghwa Dam were increased to support smooth construction, and budget projects to enhance flood control capacity were included.

Investment to advance the artificial intelligence (AI) flood forecasting system will also be expanded. The goal was to install 285 water level observation stations by 2029, but this was completed early this year, and the operation of automatic flow measurement facilities for real-time monitoring was more than doubled from 86 to 176. The sewer pipeline maintenance budget increased from 1.2816 trillion KRW this year to 1.6264 trillion KRW next year.

95 billion KRW will be spent on preventing algal blooms and managing pollution sources. The number of algal bloom removal vessels will increase from 16 to 23, and facility investments will be expanded to treat livestock manure, which has a high water pollution load.

Zero-Emission Vehicle Budget Up 4.5%, but Electric Vehicle Subsidies Cut by 1 Million KRW

The carbon neutrality and green industry budget focused on implementing the ‘2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target (NDC)’ and expanding private investment for low-carbon transition. The climate response guarantee budgets previously operated separately by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Financial Services Commission were unified under the Ministry of Environment. The newly launched Green Transition Guarantee next year is expected to generate a capital inflow effect of 1.5 trillion KRW with a scale of 140 billion KRW. Funds such as the Green Infrastructure Overseas Export Support Fund (60 billion KRW), Future Environmental Industry Promotion Loan (333.3 billion KRW), and Green Policy Finance Activation (54 billion KRW) will also be established.

The zero-emission vehicle transition budget increased by 4.5% from 3.0537 trillion KRW to 3.1915 trillion KRW. For electric vehicles, the number of smart control chargers will increase from 20,300 to 95,000 to enhance charging infrastructure safety. The slow general charger installation project will be terminated. Electric vehicle subsidies were reduced from 4 million KRW to 3 million KRW for passenger cars and from 11 million KRW to 10 million KRW for trucks. However, the number of eligible recipients was increased by 7,000 to 339,000 to ensure the goal of distributing 4.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2030 is not disrupted.

The budget for responding to international carbon trade regulations increased from 4.6 billion KRW to 10.8 billion KRW. This measure encourages related companies to introduce carbon reduction facilities and invest more in innovative reduction technologies. Support for consulting small and medium enterprises increased from 60 to 100 companies, and 200 new professionals will be trained to enhance corporate response capabilities.

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