Boost for South Korea's green sector

SEOUL, July 13 (UPI) -- South Korea's 30 major industrial groups plan to invest $18 billion in the green growth sector, a presidential committee announced Tuesday.

Spending will be allocated toward clean energy, the development of hybrid cars and next-generation electric device development.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak stressed the importance of developing original technology to support the government's low-carbon and green growth campaign.

"(We) should develop all materials related with (green) technology and advance into the global market with 100 percent of our own technology," Lee said during Tuesday's meeting of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Yonhap News reports.

"In the era of green growth, we should make original technologies," he said.

South Korea, Asia's fourth largest polluter, aims to cut its carbon emissions by 30 percent from a 2020 forecast or a 4 percent decrease from 2005 levels.

Lee had declared his "low-carbon, green-growth" vision in his national address in August 2008.

By 2009, the government unveiled its Five-Year Plan for Green Growth, saying that it would spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product over the next five years for investment in green technologies, resource and material efficiency, renewable energies, sustainable transport, green buildings and ecosystem restoration.

Earlier this year the government also said it expected alternative energy spending by the private sector and state-run companies to increase by 52 percent in 2010.

A U.N. Environment Program report in April said Seoul's green growth strategy "contains encouraging policy goals and targets to tackle climate change and enhance energy security, create new engines of growth through investment in environmental sectors and develop ecological infrastructure."

Tuesday's announcement follows the establishment last month of the Global Green Growth Institute, headed by former prime minister Han Seung-soo.

The institute will map out strategy and policy for the reduction of greenhouse gases and eco-friendly economic development. It plans to open regional offices in major cities with the goal of becoming an international organization by 2012, through inter-governmental treaties.

Following the launch of GGGI, Han spoke to the Korea Herald of Seoul's achievements: "We were the first to devise the five-year green growth plan and a presidential committee on green growth under the presidential office as well as the basic legal framework for green growth," he said.

"The global challenge that we face today transcends national boundaries and affects all of us," he said. "Therefore, what we need today is to encourage such proactive cooperation and coordination between nations and the people of the world."