S. Korea vows financial support to boost overseas green projects

The South Korean government said Wednesday it will expand financial support for domestic companies in green sectors to make inroads into the global market, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund.

Launched in late 2010, the South Korea-based United Nations climate fund aims to channel money from industrialized nations to developing countries to help them tackle climate change-related problems.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and Yannick Glemarec, executive director of the GCF, agreed to increase the scale of the global fund’s financing for overseas green projects run by Korean businesses, which is currently worth $2.3 billion, during a special session of the upcoming P4G Seoul Summit, held Tuesday.

P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is 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. 

“The government will also provide $300 million in funding to the GCF and scale up its official development assistance projects designed to promote economically sustainable development in emerging countries, to account for more than 20 percent of the total ODA programs from the current 6 percent,” Hong said. 

The latest move came in line with the Moon Jae-in administration’s Green New Deal initiative being pushed to achieve economic recovery and job creation through eco-friendly policies as well as development of the renewable energy sector.

By Choi Jae-hee  (cjh@heraldcorp.com)