Major environmental policy change unlikely under Park

Following is the seventh in a series of articles on President-elect Park Geun-hye’s key policies. ― Ed.


President-elect Park Geun-hye is expected to maintain incumbent leader Lee Myung-bak’s key policies on environmental issues including carbon emissions reduction, green growth and nuclear power generation.

But environmental groups are concerned about the possibility of a weakened momentum under the incoming leader whose pledges were criticized for lacking substantial goals and action plans.

Park unveiled a full list of her environmental pledges on Dec. 10, just nine days before the election, after receiving flak from environmental groups for her “lack of enthusiasm” on environmental issues.

In that, she vowed to ensure “a balance between economic development and nature conservation.”

She also vowed continued efforts to meet an emissions reduction target set by Lee. Korea has vowed to voluntarily cut greenhouse gases emitted by 30 percent below business-as-usual levels by 2020 under the “low-carbon green growth” policy he proclaimed in 2008 as a new national development paradigm.

Park also said that she will uphold the East Asia Climate Partnership, a Korean initiative to help Asian countries tackle climate change and pursue green growth, and other green aid programs.

Going into details of her pledges, a plan to introduce a compensation system for environmental damages draws most attention from environmentalists.

The president-elect promised to uphold “environmental justice” in Korea by making it a law that pollution generators must pay for their action.

At present, victims of an environmental accident must file a civil lawsuit against individuals or companies responsible to have their damages compensated.

Additionally, the current environmental dispute arbitration committee must be overhauled, as it is failing to serve its stated mission.

To ensure the smooth rollout of the compensation system, Park plans to introduce an insurance scheme for companies handling environmentally hazardous materials.

She has also pledged to hike government subsidies for replacement of asbestos-cement slate roofs with safer ones, from the current 30 percent of the total required cost to 70 percent.

Yet, Park’s environmental promises are bland and vague, and more importantly avoid the two thorniest environmental issues of Korea ― the four-river restoration project and nuclear energy, environmental groups say.

“The president-elect, during her campaigning, shunned the biggest environmental issues ― the four-river restoration project and nuclear energy,” Green Korea United, a Seoul-based civic group, said in a statement after Park’s election. “Now that she has been elected, we expect a more responsible attitude befitting her new status as a national leader.”

The river project is arguably the most controversial environmental undertaking of President Lee. A total of 22 trillion won ($20.5 billion) was spent in the dredging and damming of the country’s four major rivers, which many environmentalists claim did more harm than good to the environment.

During her TV debate with rival candidate Moon Jae-in, Park just said that she would “re-examine” the project, given all the controversies.

On the anti-nuclear movement, Park said it was unrealistic to shut down all aging nuclear plants, stressing that a proper safety test should be done before any decision on extended operation.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)