• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3682-3694
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• 2022

The expansion of a country's ecological footprint generates resources for economic development. China's import bill and carbon footprint can be reduced by investing in green transportation and energy technologies. A sustainable environment depends on the cessation of climate change; the current study investigates nuclear energy efficiency, economic complexity, air transportation, and industrial improvement for reducing environmental footprint. Using data spanning the years 1983-2016, the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation method has demonstrated the short- and long-term variability in the impact of regressors on the ecological footprint. The study findings revealed that economic complexity in China had been found to have a statistically significant impact on the country's ecological footprint. Moreover, the industrial improvement process is helpful for the ecological footprint in China. In the short term, air travel has a negative impact on the ecological footprint, but this effect diminishes over time. Additionally, energy innovation is negative and substantial both in the short and long run, thus demonstrating its positive role in reducing the ecological footprint. Policy implications can be extracted from a wide range of issues, including economic complexity, industrial improvement, air transportation, energy innovation, and ecological impact to achieve sustainable goals.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.280-295
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• 2016

Influences on the environment from the consumption of livestock have increased drastically during the last 50 years in Korea. Reduction of bovine meat consumption is one of the alternatives as sustainable food supply. The consumption of bovine meat and the ecological footprint (the sum of the cropland, grazing land, and carbon footprint) from the consumption of bovine meat have increased over 13 and 12 times over the last 50 years. Especially, the consumption of imported bovine meat and the ecological footprint from the consumption of imported bovine meat have increased significantly about 346 and 369 times over the last 40 years. If the consumption of bovine meat decreased by half in Korea in 2023, the ecological footprint from the consumption of bovine meat would be reduced by 40~65% depending on the scenarios. The supportable population number for the consumptions of environmental resources (food (crops, livestock, and fish), energy, forest, and built-up land) and the crops were 0.57~1.56 million and 3.42~6.83 million, respectively, depending on the scenarios and the nationality of the supported people.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.457-463
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• 2014

This study was carried out to find out major factors to mitigate carbon emission using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). System boundary of LCA was confined from sowing to packaging during vegetable production. Input amount of agri-materials was calculated on 2007 Income reference of white radish, chinese cabbage and chive produced at open field and film house published by Rural Development Administration. Domestic data and Ecoinvent data were used for emission factors of each agri-material based on the 1996 IPCC guideline. Carbon footprint of white radish was 0.19 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at open fields, 0.133 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at film house, that of chinese cabbage was 0.22 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at open fields, 0.19 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at film house, and that of chive was 0.66 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at open fields and 1.04 kg $CO_2kg^{-1}$ at film house. The high carbon footprint of chive was related to lower vegetable production and higher fuel usage as compared to white radish and Chinese cabbage. The mean proportion of carbon emission was 35.7% during the manufacturing byproduct fertilizer; white radish at open fields was 50.6%, white radish at film house 13.1%, Chinese cabbage at outdoor 38.4%, Chinese cabbage at film house 34.0%, chive at outdoor 50.6%, and chive at film house 36.0%. Carbon emission, on average, for the step of manufacturing and combustion accounted for 16.1% of the total emission; white radish at open fields was 4.3%, white radish at film house 15.6%, Chinese cabbage at open fields 6.9%, Chinese cabbage at film house 19.0%, chive at open fields 12.5%, and chive at film house 29.1%. On the while, mean proportion of carbon footprint for the step of $N_2O$ emission was 29.2%; white radish at open fields was 39.2%, white radish at film house 41.9%, Chinese cabbage at open fields 34.4%, Chinese cabbage at film house 23.1%, chive at open fields 28.8%, and chive at film house 17.1%. Fertilizer was the primary factor and fuel was the secondary factor for carbon emission among the vegetables of this study. It was suggested to use Heug-To-Ram web-service system, http://soil.rda.go.kr, for the scientific fertilization based on soil testing, and for increase of energy efficiency to produce low carbon vegetable.

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.440-445
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• 2012

15 carbon footprint product (CFP) schemes, including Korea Carbon Footprint Label, UK Carbon Trust's Carbon Reduction Label and Japan CFP are implemented in the world. A CFP describes green house gases (GHGs) emissions emitted throughout product's life cycle and is intended to reduce GHGs emissions by labeling a CFP result on product. This study calculates Korea, UK and Japan CFP result of vacuum cleaner, detergent, packagin material in order to analyze the Korea, UK and Japan CFP standards. Our results demonstrate significant differences among then calculated results because of criteria, emission factors, etc. Therefore, there are many difficulties in providing various CFP results and the international standard and guidelines for product category are needed.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1279-1285
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• 2011

Korea is currently underway research to estimate carbon footprint in agriculture centered on the RDA (Rural Development Administration). This study was estimated carbon footprint for major 47 crops. In addition, contribution of inorganic chemical fertilizers, main elements for production of crops were analyzed. The carbon footprint of $5.78E+00kg\;CO_2\;eq.\;kg^{-1}$ for citrus fruit in greenhouse was highest, grape in greenhouse, sweet pepper in greenhouse, ginseng, green pepper in greenhouse were followed by $4.61E+00kg\;CO_2\;eq.\;kg^{-1}$, $4.34E+00kg\;CO_2\;eq.\;kg^{-1}$, $4.23E+00kg\;CO_2\;eq.\;kg^{-1}$, $4.04E+00kg\;CO_2\;eq.\;kg^{-1}$ respectively. Next, production phase contribution of inorganic chemical fertilizer to carbon footprint of crop 1 kg were analyzed mean value 1.88%, 9.06% for single fertilizers and complex fertilizers respectively. And use phase accounted for mean value 14.24%. Therefore, to reduce the fertilization of inorganic chemical fertilizer will be reduced $CO_2$ from crop production, also greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural sector will be reduced.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.389-406
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• 2011

As part of a feasibility study for introducing carbon labeling of fruit products in Korea, we explore the use of carbon footprints for Korean kiwifruit from Gyeongnam region as a case study. In Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) is responsible for the carbon footprint labeling certification, and has two types of certification programs: one program focuses on climate change response (carbon footprint labeling analysis) and the other on low-carbon products (reduction of carbon footprints analysis). Currently agricultural products have not yet been included in the program. Carbon labeling could soon be a prerequisite for the international trading of agricultural products. In general the carbon footprints of various agricultural products from New Zealand followed the methodology described in the ISO standards and conformed to the PAS 2050. The carbon footprint assessment focuses on a supply chain, and considers the foreground and the background systems. The basic scheme consists of four phases, which are the 'goal', 'scope', 'inventory analysis', and 'interpretation' phases. In the case of the carbon footprint of New Zealand kiwifruit the study tried to understand each phase's contribution to total GHG emissions. According to the results, shipping, orchard, and coolstore operation are the main life cycle stages that contribute to the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain stretching from the orchard in New Zealand to the consumer in the UK. The carbon emission of long-distance transportation such as shipping can be a hot-spot of GHG emissions, but can be balanced out by minimizing the carbon footprint of other life cycle phases. For this reason it is important that orchard and coolstore operations reduce the GHG-intensive inputs such as fuel or electricity to minimize GHG emissions and consequently facilitate the industry to compete in international markets. The carbon footprint labeling guided by international standards should be introduced for fruit products in Korea as soon as possible. The already established LCA methodology of NZ kiwifruit can be applied for fruit products as a case study.

• The monthly packaging world
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• s.196
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• pp.71-75
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• 2009

• The monthly packaging world
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• s.196
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• pp.86-90
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• 2009

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.31-52
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• 2013

The recent analyses of carbon emissions embodied in international trade are related with discussions on who is responsible for the carbon emissions causing global warming. Some authors insist that the countries importing carbon-intensive goods should share the responsibility with the suppliers of those goods. In order to determine which countries are net importers of carbon dioxide embodied in traded goods, we need to construct the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model incorporating national input-output tables and data on bilateral trades. The paper calculates consumption-based as well as production-based inventories by using MRIO model whose global database is GTAP version 8 to get the picture of carbon footprints in international trades of Korea and other regions in the world.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.358-383
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• 2015

The concept of 'carbon footprint' has been developed as a means of quantifying the specific emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming. Although there are still neither clear definitions of the term nor rules for units or the scope of its estimation, it is broadly accepted that the carbon footprint is the total amount of GHGs, expressed as $CO_2$ equivalents, emitted into the atmosphere directly or indirectly at all processes of the production by an individual or organization. According to the ISO/TS 14067, the carbon footprint of a product is calculated by multiplying the units of activity of processes that emit GHGs by emission factor of the processes, and by summing them up. Based on this, 'carbon labelling' system has been implemented in various ways over the world to provide consumers the opportunities of comparison and choice, and to encourage voluntary activities of producers to reduce GHG emissions. In the agricultural sector, as a judgment basis to help purchaser with ethical consumption, 'low-carbon agricultural and livestock products certification' system is expected to have more utilization value. In this process, the 'cradle to gate' approach (which excludes stages for usage and disposal) is mainly used to set the boundaries of the life cycle assessment for agricultural products. The estimation of carbon footprint for the entire agricultural and forestry sector should take both removals and emissions into account in the "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report". The carbon accumulation in the biomass of perennial trees in cropland should be considered also to reduce the total GHG emissions. In order to accomplish this, tower-based flux measurements can be used, which provide a direct quantification of $CO_2$ exchange during the entire life cycle. Carbon footprint information can be combined with other indicators to develop more holistic assessment indicators for sustainable agricultural and forestry ecosystems.