Adoption of Carbon Emissions Trading and Its Prospects

탄소배출권 거래제의 도입과 전망

Korea has been officially classified as a non Annex-I country under the Kyoto Protocol, however, international community is used to considering it as if it were an Annex-I country. Korea has been under great pressure from the international community, especially from the EU and the US, to get included as an Annex-I country or to accept a legally-binding emissions reduction target like other developed nations. Korean Government declared its national target of emissions reduction in 2020 before the Copenhagen meeting, and also pronounced "Low-Carbon Green-Growth" as a new national paradigm to drive the entire nation toward a low carbon society and develop a new growth momentum. The 'green Act', which was passed by the National Assembly in 2009, is a comprehensive and fundamental law providing legal grounds to all of the national policies and measures that are needed to transform the nation into a low-carbon society. Korean government announced to begin Carbon Emissions Trading from 2015, instead of the originally scheduled year of 2013, considering global trends and industrial competitiveness in a flexible manner. The Carbon Emission Trading would reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent from the expected 2020 level, or 4 percent below its emissions in 2005.