News

(Yonhap Interview) GGGI chief says carbon trading not too early for S. Korea

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) — It isn’t too early for South Korea to launch a carbon emissions trading market next year, contrary to claims by the country’s business groups, although the government should ensure a reasonable baseline that determines the level of required emissions reduction, the head of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) said.

Yvo de Boer made the remarks just hours after South Korea’s leading business organization voiced its concerns over the cap-and-trading market set to open on Jan. 1, 2015 as part of global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below business-as-usual (BAU) levels in 2020.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) is demanding that the government delay the market launch until 2020.

“What they are concerned about is the competitiveness of their companies. They want to be sure that the scheme is fair and allows them to continue to compete,” De Boer said in an interview Tuesday with Yonhap News Agency. “At the same time, this is a policy that was approved more than two years ago, so the writing’s been on the wall for a long time.”

Yvo de Boer, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (Yonhap)

Yvo de Boer, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (Yonhap)

Read the full article from Yonhap News.