Korea’s top businesses including POSCO and Samsung Electronics will have to considerably scale back their greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 due to new government directives.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Monday it has notified 366 companies in the industrial and power sector of the reduction targets. These companies each emit more than 125,000 tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) a year.
POSCO has the most work to do as it must slash its emissions by 963,000 tCO2e, while the goal for Samsung Electronics is to lower levels by 429,000 tCO2e. After these two, LG Display faces the biggest burden, followed by Hyundai Steel, Samsung Mobile Display, Ssangyong Cement, LG Chem, S-OIL, SK Energy, and Tongyang Cement.
These ten major energy-intensive companies will account for 54.1 percent of the 4.7 million tCO2e that needs to be cut by the country’s entire industrial sector next year. The reductions required of big businesses represent 97.9 percent of those planned for the entire business sector.
The ministry forecasts that if the targets are met next year, it will be equivalent to the effect of replacing 3.5 million cars with electric vehicles.
Spokesmen for the companies said they will endeavor to meet the targets in line with green growth, but expressed concern that they could further dampen profits, thus compounding the effect of the slowdown in global growth.
Companies that do not comply with the goals will at first receive an enforcement notice. If they continue to fail to act, they will face a fine of up to W10 million.
