South Korea and Italy will push to mutually recognize each other's carbon footprint verification system.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Thursday, the Korea National Cleaner Production Center and the Carbon Footprint Italy program signed a memorandum of understanding(MOU) to push for the mutual recognition.

Carbon footprint refers to an index calculating carbon emissions of products from base material collection, production, distribution to disposal.

The MOU comes as a growing number of South Korean businesses are asked to verify the carbon footprint of their exports to the European Union(EU), a process that requires a considerable amount of time and cost within the EU.

Seeking bilateral cooperation toward signing of a mutual recognition agreement(MRA), Seoul and Rome have set a goal to sign the deal at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November.