South Korea yesterday announced a plan to spend $36bn (£22.6m) over the next five years to develop renewable energy sources and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The government forecasts that the country’s exports of clean energy will reach more than $30bn in 2015 if the plan is implemented successfully, creating 110,000 jobs.
“Given the sharp growth in the world’s market, we will be able to nurture solar energy and wind power industries as the second semiconductor and the second shipbuilding industries and make them the pillar of the future national economy,” South Korea’s president Lee Myung-bak said, in comments reported by the Korea Times on Wednesday.
The latest investment is part of the government’s green growth strategy, aimed at turning environmental technologies into the main drivers of economic growth and new sources of jobs. The investment programme is also designed to reduce the country’s heavy dependence on oil and gas imports and tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
The government predicts the global market for renewable energy will grow rapidly from $162bn last year to an estimated $400bn in 2015.
Under the plan, the government will inject $6.5bn into new renewable energy technologies, while the private sector will provide $30bn in new investment by 2015.
In addition, the government will spend $8bn to build a 2.5GW offshore wind farm in the Yellow Sea by 2019.
Lee also stressed the importance of securing a stable supply of water and said his government will map out a comprehensive water resource management plan for the upcoming century.
“As the water industry is emerging as the core industry in the 21st century, South Korea, based on its experience in managing water resources, should nurture the water industry through an active push for making inroads into foreign markets and make contributions to the international community,” he said.
The new investment comes just weeks after the government announced measures to promote the use of renewable energy in government agencies and the private sector.
Under the new rule, all electric power companies that generate more than 500MW of electricity per hour must diversify their portfolio of energy sources beginning in 2012 and increase the supply of electricity generated from renewable energy sources to 10 per cent of the total by 2022.
Last year, Seoul pledged to cut carbon emissions by 30 per cent from levels predicted for 2020, becoming the first emerging economy to set up a reduction goal.
And in June the government set up the Global Green Growth Institute, a global think tank tasked to promote green growth and tackle climate change.
