President Moon Jae-in says South Korea will take the initiative in achieving carbon neutrality, setting a global example and displaying leadership as it has done in the COVID-19 frontline. 

Moon declared his vision for the country’s 2050 carbon neutrality initiative in a televised speech Thursday evening. 

Since first announcing his administration's carbon-reduction plan in his budget speech at the National Assembly in October, Moon has reiterated his resolve to meet the target in 30 years' time. On Monday, the government put forward a blueprint for the initiative, including a no-industry-left-behind policy in going carbon neutral. 

In the television speech, broadcast live on KBS 1TV and KBS WORLD TV, Moon sought public understanding and support in pursuing the ambitious initiative by acknowledging its potential challenges given the nation’s heavy reliance on high energy-consuming industries such as steel and petrochemicals. 

However, the president noted the urgency of the project, addressing the increasingly materialized effects of climate change across the world including the Korean Peninsula, such as the prevalence of “record-breaking extreme weather events.”

He also emphasized South Korea’s potential to overcome the challenge, pointing to its economic emergence from the ashes of war, as well as its low-carbon technological prowess that is applicable to industries such as ICT and digital. 

Also noting the outcome of pro-environment policies pursued by the nation in previous decades, the president said his administration’s Green New Deal initiative outlined in July will be the nation’s "first bold step" toward the 2050 goal. 

Such efforts, Moon stressed, are putting South Korea “on a relatively equal starting line” with countries that began industrialization two centuries ago and will help the nation turn the global climate crisis into an opportunity for global leadership, as well as for inclusive, sustainable growth, and become a pace-setter.