Korea must do its part in climate action

The international community has taken a meaningful step toward exercising justice in its response to climate change. On its first day, the UN Climate Summit dubbed COP28 in Dubai agreed to launch a fund to provide compensation for the losses and damage from climate change. The host country — the United Arab Emirates — and Germany each put up $100 million. The United Kingdom pledged 60 million pounds ($76 million), the United States $24.5 million, Japan $10 million, and the European Union $145 million.

The fund is the first active step toward the goal of climate justice sought by developing countries who have been hit hard by disasters from climate change, exacerbated by the trapped carbon emitted by industrialized nations. Climate action has failed to draw a synchronized voice and action due to the inequalities in the responsibilities. Developed countries have an even greater liability for climate change, and yet they demand the same regulations from developing countries. Floods and other disasters from global warming hit poorer countries more heavily due to their lack of infrastructure.

According to the Global Carbon Project established in 2001, the United States and China are responsible for 38.5 percent of the 1.697 trillion tons of emissions accumulated from the civilizations between 1750 and 2020. The African and South African continents combined accounted for merely 5.5 percent. Developing countries can only regard the imposition of emission regulations as bullying from developed ones who are liable for the lion’s share of the climate mess from all fossil fuels they have used.

The United States and six others have joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA). The PPCA, launched by the U.K. and Canada in 2018, urges member countries of the OECD and the EU to stop coal-based power generation by 2030 and other countries by 2050. Among OECD members, only Korea, Japan, Australia and Turkey have not signed onto the PPCA.

Korea has been a laggard in climate action. The country is the world’s ninth largest carbon emitter, yet it ranked at 60th in 2022 on the Climate Change Performance Index. Under the former Moon Jae-in government, the share of coal-fueled power generation in the energy pie increased to 52.4 percent in 2018 from 47.5 percent in 2016, a year before the launch of his administration.

Korea’s climate action has zigzagged due to flip-flops in energy strategy since the Moon administration’s nuclear phase-out policy. Nuclear power is being included in green taxonomy across the world. To meet emission goals, electricity generated from reactors and renewable sources must increase at the expense of coal power. Korea must find feasible ways to reduce emissions. The time has come for the country to contribute to the loss and damage fund.