S. Korea to ramp up investment in Green New Deal projects: finance minister

South Korea plans to invest about 73 trillion won ($65.4 billion) in its signature green energy projects by 2025 as it seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the finance minister said Tuesday.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the country is working to attain the goal of going carbon neutral in a bid to transform the country‘s fossil-fuel reliant economy into an eco-friendly one.

“We plan to invest 3.8 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 in Green New Deal projects, including green infrastructure, renewable energy and green mobility,” Hong said in an opening speech for a special session of the upcoming P4G Seoul Summit.

P4G stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, a public-private initiative to tackle climate change and other sustainable development challenges.

South Korea is set to host the summit on Sunday and Monday.

South Korea’s carbon neutrality campaign is in line with its Green New Deal drive being pushed to achieve sustainable growth through eco-friendly policies.

In a virtual climate summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in April, President Moon Jae-in said his country will reduce carbon emissions by 24.4 percent by 2030 from 2017 levels, and additionally raise its nationally determined contribution (NDC), which will be reported to the UN within this year. (Yonhap)