Korea to celebrate Earth Day

The South Korean government and municipalities reaffirmed their efforts to contribute to global initiatives to cut carbon use as the country joins in the 46th Earth Day celebrations Friday.

To raise awareness on the urgency to save the Earth, the government and municipalities have been holding events throughout the week.

Designating April 20-26 as Climate Change Week, the Environment Ministry has annually promoted environment-related events ranging from campaigns for using public transportation to photo exhibitions, awareness classes and experts’ forums. These are held in several cities, including Busan, Daegu and Ulsan. 

The largest event is Earth Hour, which will be held Friday to remind people of the importance of cutting carbon emissions. Citizens will be recommended to turn off all electric lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. when electricity consumption is at its highest.

The Earth Hour event is the annual signature event of global conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature. Earth Hour was also held nationwide ahead of Earth Day on March 19, drawing massive participation from the public and private sector. This Friday’s Earth Hour will be independently promoted by municipalities.

Earth Day was started in 1970 by 20 million Americans, who took to the streets to protest against the uncontrolled impact of fossil-fuel-driven industrial development.

The one-day demonstration soon spread to other communities across the U.S., leading the U.S. Congress to pass landmark environmental laws that ensured the community’s right-to-know provisions. They also allowed Americans to sue the government if it fails to carry out the law. 

About 50 years later, Earth Day has become an international day for countries to remind people of the value of the Earth and encourage communities to take action to save the planet. 

This year’s Earth Day is historic, as the world leaders from at least 150 countries will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York to officially sign the Paris Agreement -- a deal reached at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December to limit global warming.

More than 190 countries agreed to limit planetary temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, which scientists consider to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change.

The new deal will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which only required developed states to curb emissions. International calls have grown that developing countries should also take part in the carbon cut move in order to practically limit the temperature rise.

Korea pledged last year to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 37 percent from the expected business-as-usual level by 2030. The plan comprises actual mitigations of 25.7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and the purchase of global carbon credits equivalent to 11.3 percent.

The Paris Agreement be will opened for a year for signing. It will take effect once at least 55 countries sign the accord. The emissions of those countries, however, must exceed 55 percent of the world’s total emissions.

The Environment Ministry said it would promote its carbon cut measures at the U.N. headquarters meeting Friday, especially expanding the number of environmentally friendly vehicles and creating a carbon-free island, officials said.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)