Special Act on Seoul Metropolitan Air Quality Improvement
- Special Act on Seoul Metropolitan Air Quality Improvement to be enforced from Jan.1, 2005

Air pollution has been posing a grave problem in Korea as it has been around the world. Seoul's air pollution was at the worst level among OECD countries with its Fine Particulate Matter(PM10) pollution rate at 76 ug/m3 and nitrogen dioxide pollution rate at 36 ppb, which are worse than Mexico City's. The government no longer can let the situation grow worse and it has come up with Special Act on Seoul Metropolitan Air Quality Improvement, which will come into force from Jan.1, next year.
Followings are excerpts of an interview with Kim Shin-jong, director-general for the Air Quality Management Bureau of the Environment Ministry. This high-level government official will focus on what the government has been doing to prevent air pollution and what is behind the Special Act on Metropolitan Air Quality Improvement with its major contents and its expected results in this exclusive interview with NewsWorld:

Question:1. What were the reasons behind the establishment of the Special Act on Metropolitan Air Quality Improvement?
A: Before this Act was promulgated, Seoul's air pollution was at the worst level among the 31 OECD countries with Seoul's Fine Particulate Matter(PM10) pollution rate standing at 76 ug/m3 and nitrogen dioxide(NOx) pollution rate at 36 ppb, which are worse than Mexico City.
The capital area's pollution rate records 40 percent higher than most other cities in the country and 90 percent violation rate against environment standard. The damage from this is estimated at around 10 trillion won a year in various social costs. The government decided to draw attention upon the special measures aside from the existing atmospheric management policies to clear up the air in the capital area so that its residents would have a better quality of life.
The government established this Special Act in December 2003 to push those special measures in a systematic way.
This Special Act enters into effect from the starting of next year.

Q: What is the cause for the deterioration of the quality of atmosphere in the capital area?
A: The fundamental cause for the deteriorated environment would be reckless development activities without taking environmental considerations. The area takes up only 12 percent of land in the country, but it has 46 percent of population and vehicles and 34 percent energy consumption rate in violation of atmospheric environmental critical loads.
The area's population density stands at 1,858/km2, 65 times that of the United States and the number of cars jumped to 5.58 million in 2000 from 270,000 in 1980, up 20 times.
In case of Seoul City, its population and vehicles already exceeded the environmentally allowed capacity by 2 to 3 times. The city's environmentally allowed capacity call for 1 million cars and 5 million population. The capital area is surrounded by mountains making trapped air to escape into atmosphere. The area's air pollution grew worse than normal due to the excessive road construction over policies to preserve green areas and environmentally friendly transportation development.
I believe that the government will move to restrict the number of smoke-stack plants with a complete set of measures rather than one and one basis. Automobiles will be classified into three categories. Cars running on LPG rather than diesel, cars installed with DOC and DPF to reduce exhaust fumes and those to be equipped with engines burning alternative fuels with government support. The government plans to invest 6 trillion won in the next 10 years. The government also plans to impose charge on car exhaust fumes to secure funds.

Q: What are key points of the Special Act in order to improve the quality of atmosphere in the capital area?
A: In order to control pollution discharge, the Special Act introduces provisions for Total Air Pollution Load Management System(TPLM). First of all, the government will set air pollution management targets as well as the atmospheric environmental critical loads to achieve the targets.
The Environment Minister will allocate the allowed atmospheric pollution discharge volumes within the atmospheric environmental critical loads to cities and provinces. Cities and provinces will manage the pollution load within the limit allowed by the environment minister.
The Special Act introduces the emission cap and trade system in stationary source. Under the cap and trade system, each factory will be given a single permit that encompasses all emission sources. Each factory will receive an annual emissions allocation for sources emitting either NOx, Sox or dust. Factories will be required to meet their annual emissions allocation and specific annual emission reduction target. Cap and Trade system allows each factory to choose the most cost-effective strategy to meet its annual emission target such as improving emission controls, modernization, process improvements or by purchasing emission reductions produced at another facility.. Factory that may have emissions below its annual allocation can sell the difference to the other factories. at the same time. Factory that may have emissions over its annual allocation will be penalized. However, these measures will enter in effect from July, 2007, after undertaking pilot implementations, as they will be introduced for the first time in the country.
For measure to reduce vehicle emissions, which take up most of pollutants in the capital area, automobile sellers with more than annual sales of 3,000 cars will be required to sell certain portion of their cars with zero emission vehicles or low emission vehicles. The government and public organizations will be required to purchase 20 percent of their new purchasing cars with zero emission vehicles or low emission vehicles.
Among pollutants discharged in the capital area, 67 percent of PM10 and 51 percent of NOx are emitted by vehicles. However, diesel vehicles take up 100 percent of PM10 and 75 percent of NOx discharged by vehicles. The pollutant discharge standard for old diesel-driven vehicles will be strengthened.
Those cars emitting more than allowed level of pollutants will be required to install discharge reduction equipment or replace the engine with those discharging less pollutants.

Q: How different are the emission cap and trade system of stationary sources from the existing systems?
A: The existing Emission Standard System is designed to measure the density of pollutants emitted by smoke stacks in the plants. Increases in the number of plants also gave rise to pollution discharge and the current system seemed insufficient to control it. The cap and trade system is designed for overall control of pollutant discharge by allocating the annual emissions before hand and reduce the annual emissions on a step-by-step basis.
Business owners have to comply with the allocated annual emissions, and otherwise will be required to pay penalty for excess emission discharge over the allocated annual emissions.
Cap and Trade system allows each factory to choose the most cost-effective strategy to meet its annual emission target such as improving emission controls, modernization, process improvements or by purchasing emission reductions produced at another facility.. Factory that may have emissions below its annual allocation can sell the difference to the other factories. At the same time. Factory that may have emissions over its annual allocation will be penalized.
In a number of foreign countries including the United States, they have been able to successfully reduce pollutant discharge volumes through the Emission Trading System better than direct measures to reduce pollutant emissions.
The system is reflected in international climate change agreements as means to secure the flexibility. It is reflected in the Kyoto Protocol.

Q: When would the Special Act coming into effect and how much improvement in the quality of atmosphere over the capital area can be expected under the Act?
A: Measures on cars such as the distribution of low emission vehicles and installation of Diesel Particulate Filter(DPF) or Diesel Oxidation Catalyst(DOC) will be enforced from 2005. But other regulations including the cap and trade system will be coming into force from July, 2007, to give business owners enough time to be prepared for the Special Act.
Under the Special Act, the current pollutant discharge volumes will be cut in half so that air quality in the capital area will be improved enough to be relevant with OECD standards. In detail, Seoul's PM10 rate would be improved to 40 ug/m3 and NOx rate to 22 ppb, compared to 71 ug/ m3 and 37 ppb of 2001.
It is expected to drastically reduce aspiratory symptoms, for senior citizens and children under the special act with expected damages from air pollution down to 7 trillion won per annum.

Q: What would be the areas that will impact the daily lives of citizens of the capital area when the Special Act is enforced from next year?
A: Owners of diesel vehicles in Seoul and its vicinities will have to undergo emission inspection. Based on the emission inspection, those with unsatisfactory pollutant emission rate would be required to install equipment to reduce it such as DPF or DOC, or replace its engine with low pollutant emission. In the worse case, they would be put out of commission. But the government would provide a subsidy to car owners required to install pollutant discharge reduction equipment so that they would be able to minimize their costs.

Q: There were some difficulties and frustrations during the process leading up to the adoption of the Special Act. Can you explain some of them during the key processes?
A: We had much difficulty in developing the Act because benefits will go to society as a whole while the cost will be borne by a particular group. The Environment Ministry began its consultations with other related ministries and industries on various issues on the way to set up the Special Act. It has its share of difficulty due to objections that it will create obstacles in fostering regional development, economic growth and industrial activities. They all agreed with the need to reduce air pollution in the capital area, but they voiced many opinions on detailed regulations such as those on the TPLM by region and the cap and trade system in stationary sources. But in June last year, a task force was created, consisting of representatives from the government, industry and civilian sectors and it was able to draw up an agreement on key issues of the Act after a series of in-depth discussions.
In December of last year, the National Assembly passed the Special Act based on agreements put together by the task force.
For a year and half, the Environment Ministry conducted over 100 rounds of discussions and numerous public hearings on the way to reach an agreement. This could be a model case for resolving various claims through discussions and participation by the participatory government.
The task force met for several times this year to take up various matters related to the Act's enforcement decrees and agree on them. We believe that there will be no further problems in reaching an agreement on the enforcement decrees to pave the way for the implementation of the Special Act starting next year. nw