Preparing for Climate Change Agreement:
High Time for Greenhouse Gas Reduction

In December last year, the 11th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Montreal, Canada to discuss measures for international cooperation on tackling climate change after 2012, but the U.S. delegate walked out of the meeting room at the start of the negotiation.
However, parties including the U.S. managed to come to an agreement on the issue a day before the conclusion of the conference. At the meeting, the Russian delegation proposed to discuss a voluntary reduction scheme for developing countries after 2012 since they are not obligated to reduce greenhouse gas for the period of 2008-2012. Delegates from developing countries objected to the Russian proposal, but after an over-night discussion, they finally agreed to discuss the Russian proposal starting this year.
As the former UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said "Future diplomacy will be environmental diplomacy,"climate change is becoming one of the most important multilateral negotiation issues.
The measure for addressing climate change is basically reducing emission of greenhouse gases including Co2. Greenhouse gas reduction has been a hot issue among developed and developing countries since it is related to energy and industrial policies of each country and it is particularly important to developing countries that are striving for economic growth.
In the 24th Meeting of the Subsidiary Body to the UNFCCC held in Germany on May 24-26, 2006, it was agreed to speed up the negotiation on additional commitments of 35 countries that are committed to reduce greenhouse gas starting 2008. They also agreed to discuss measures to reduce greenhouse gas, technology cooperation, market function, natural disasters caused by climate change and its impact on farm produce and public health.
However, an agreement will not be reached easily since developing countries want to discuss the issue of additional greenhouse gas reduction by Annex I countries that are already committed to reduce greenhouse gas emission while Annex I countries request the expansion of the greenhouse gas reduction responsibility to developing countries including South Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, saying that those leading developing countries should join 35 countries that are already committed to greenhouse gas reduction.
In the meeting, Korea strongly expressed its position on the issue and strengthened cooperation with other countries that are in similar situation with us. We have to be ready for the day when the international community's discussion on cooperative actions to tackle climate change turns to the negotiation on greenhouse gas reduction.
To cope with the situation, we need first to comprehend our country's greenhouse gas reduction potential. We need to know the potential reduction capability by industry so that we can actively participate in the international efforts and come up with a proper greenhouse gas reduction scheme for our country as the 10th largest economy and at the same time the 10th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.
Considering that it takes time to build up greenhouse gas reduction capacity of industries, reduction targets should be introduced for the 4th National 3-Year Comprehensive Measures for Climate Change, which will be implemented in 2008, so that industries have enough time to cope with climate change challenges.
Considering the limited environmental capacity of the earth, securing environmental capacity will be an important subject of international negotiation and cooperation, and the environmental regulation on economy and trade will emerge as a new standard in the future.
Now is the time for us to change our view of the environment: It's not something that we can use for free. Korean companies should understand that our time calls for strengthened environmental regulations and that clean technology is a new business opportunity for them. For example, transactions in the carbon emission trading market amounted to 4.5 billion Euros as of September last year, which shows that climate change provides business opportunities to private companies. The government also is ready to do its best to enhance companies'environmental competitiveness. nw

A scene from the 24th Meeting of the Subsidiary Body to the UNFCCC in Germany on May 24-26.
(right) The 13th session of the Commission on Sustainalble Development in New York in 2005. Dir.Gen. Shin served as chairman of the session.