[지데일리] The government and industry had a time to face each other over environmental policy.
At the conference held at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 26th of last month, major sectors participating in the greenhouse gas emission trading system, including Minister of Environment Han Han-ae, Samsung Electronics President Choi Si-young, Kim Hak-dong, POSCO steel division president, Kim Gyo-hyun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, and Gong Young-woon, president of Hyundai Motors. Corporate representatives attended.
Minister Han Jeong-ae and corporate representatives shared the direction of carbon neutrality between the government and companies, and discussed the necessary support, institutional improvement, and difficulties in the process of promoting carbon neutrality by companies.
Minister Han Jeong-ae said in a greeting prior to the start of the meeting, “Recently, disasters caused by climate change such as cold waves, forest fires, and floods have occurred in the world, and the’climate crisis’ is becoming a reality.” If the response to climate change is delayed due to the connection between the environment and industry, such as structural (ESG) management, it is inevitable that the response to climate change is the way we must go.”
After the start of the meeting, Han-Seung Geum, Minister of Environment’s Climate Change Policy, introduced the contents and schedule of discussions within the government for carbon neutrality under the theme of’Establishment of a Carbon Neutral Scenario and Implementation Strategy’.
In the first half of this year, the Ministry of Environment plans to prepare a carbon-neutral scenario through gathering industry opinions and a national conference, and reflect it in various national plans, such as raising the 2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target.
Subsequently, POSCO, Korea Cement Association, Korea District Heating Corporation, and Lotte Chemical announced carbon-neutral initiatives promoted by companies and industries.
POSCO expressed its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by reducing the current greenhouse gas emissions of about 79 million tons through energy efficiency improvement and introduction of hydrogen reduction steel.
The Korea Cement Association established its own Carbon Neutral Committee and announced plans to replace coal currently used as fuel with biomass waste and expand waste heat power generation. Biomass refers to resources made from biological organisms (trees, food waste, etc.) that have not undergone geological formation or fossilization.
The Korea District Heating Corporation is planning to focus on the waste hydrogenation project (W2H, Waste to Hydrogen), which produces clean oil from waste plastics and uses hydrogen by extracting hydrogen from waste plastics by investing KRW 1.6 trillion by 2050.
Lotte Chemical plans to improve the existing process of decomposing naphtha (naphtha) to supply plastic raw materials, replacing naphtha produced from crude oil with low-carbon raw materials, and gasifying waste plastics to reuse.
Corporate representatives requested substantial support from the government, such as R&D support and investment tax credits to preemptively introduce reduction technologies. In particular, they suggested that large corporations need strict tax credits or easing the level of contributions for technology development as they are applied differentially by company size.
POSCO is expected to require most of the green hydrogen production and renewable energy electricity currently planned by the government to achieve its goal, and requested the government to establish an infrastructure (infrastructure) for the stable supply of green hydrogen and renewable energy power. did.
In addition, Hanwha Energy suggested that when a collective energy provider that supplies heat to industrial processes converts to eco-friendly energy, it is necessary to consider the benefits of decentralized power. Korean Air ordered a support system for revitalizing the production and distribution of bio-aircraft fuel.
Since the Ministry of Environment plans to promote technology development projects related to the circular economy, Minister Han Han-ae formed the’Circular Economy R&D Planning Council’ to discover necessary tasks and reflect them in the government-wide investment direction and step-by-step implementation plan (roadmap). Suggested.
In addition, tax credits for large corporations in investment in GHG reduction technologies, reduction of the level of contributions for technology development, and activation of bio-engineering fuels were decided to be reviewed with relevant ministries after a government-wide discussion.
Participants of the conference on this day had an active discussion on carbon neutrality, which served as an opportunity to further close the relationship between the Ministry of Environment and the industry, and decided to continue to work together to achieve carbon neutrality by providing a multilateral communication platform in the future.
“The 2050 carbon neutrality is a task that can be achieved only when we all work together,” said Minister Han Jeong-ae. .