South Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest polluter, said more than 300 companies including Samsung Electronics Co. and Posco must set energy-saving and greenhouse gas-reduction targets by September 2011 to fight global warming.
They will face fines of as much as 10 million won ($8,708) if the targets aren’t met, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in an e-mailed statement today. Only companies with factories producing at least 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year are required to set goals, the ministry said, without specifying the size of the reduction targets.
South Korea said in November it plans to voluntarily cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020 under a “business as usual” scenario. The 374 companies identified by the government produced 361 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2007, or 58 percent of the nation’s emissions, according to the ministry.
“It’s positive that the government is starting to implement actual measures,” Choi Seung Kook, secretary general of Green Korea United, a non-profit group, said by telephone. “Still, I’m not sure whether this will be effective as the fine is too small to spur large companies to reduce emissions.”
The government will also adopt a carbon-offset system under which companies imparting technical knowledge on carbon reduction to smaller firms can earn emissions credits, the ministry said.
Of the 374 companies identified, 78 are petrochemical producers, 57 are paper and wood-processing companies and 36 are power generators, the ministry said. On the list are also 34 steel companies and 31 electronic chip makers. The targets must be implemented starting 2012, according to the ministry.
South Korea’s annual emissions may rise to 813 million tons by 2020 in the absence of measures to curb carbon output, a committee under the presidential office said on Aug. 4. That would be an increase of 37 percent from the 594.4 million tons produced in 2005.
