Moon publicizes upcoming climate summit in person via special footage

President Moon Jae-in has rolled up his sleeves to raise public awareness on a global climate summit to open this weekend.

South Korea is scheduled to host the two-day virtual summit of global leaders, officially named the 2021 P4G Seoul Summit, which opens Sunday. It will be joined by dozens of leaders of foreign countries and international organizations, according to Cheong Wa Dae. It has not revealed the list of participants yet.

P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is an international consultative body on public-private efforts for inclusive solutions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement.

The upcoming summit is the second of its kind following the 2018 inaugural session held in Copenhagen. It marks the first multilateral summit to be hosted by South Korea under the Moon administration.

In the special video, Moon talked with Park Jin-hee, a South Korean actress, and Tyler Rasch, an American working as a TV personality in South Korea, at the presidential compound. The pretaped footage was released through such online channels as Naver, Kakao and YouTube on Thursday.

They discussed climate change, Seoul's stated aim of going carbon neutral by 2050 and the zero waste campaign.

Moon said it is a very tough task to achieve net-zero emissions as South Korea has long used fossil fuels.

In the P4G session, participants plan to discuss how to carry out a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 under the Paris Agreement, he added.

Asked what pledge he would like to make if he were to become "the president of Earth," Moon said he would present reducing marine trash as a global undertaking.

The marine pollution issue is expected to be included in the Seoul Declaration to be adopted at the end of the P4G summit.

The declaration will cover such matters as overcoming COVID-19 and climate change, as well as achieving sustainable growth and expanding eco-friendly business management, a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on background. "It is also expected to include a strong commitment to resolving the problem of marine pollution like marine plastics," the official added.

Meanwhile, South Korea plans to launch a presidential committee on the nation's carbon neutrality drive Saturday.

The government-civilian panel to be in charge of the nation's response to climate change and efforts to cut emissions will be co-headed by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum and Yun Sun-jin, professor of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University, according to Cheong Wa Dae. (Yonhap)