مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد کربن سازی در استراتژی های رشد سبز؟ ( الزویر )

مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

The 2008 – 2009 global financial crisis triggered fiscal stimulus packages around the world. While the main purpose of the stimulus was to get economies back on the economic growth path, several environmental organizations, environmental economists, and policy makers saw this crisis as an opportunity to achieve economic recovery with low environmental impact. UNEP pointed out the “unique opportunity presented by the multiple crises and the ensuing global recession” (UNEP, 2009, p. 4). Moreover, it was argued that “a Global Green New Deal, if implemented effectively and swiftly, has the potential to revive the world economy and reduce its vulnerability to repeated fuel and food crises as well as climate-induced risks.” (Barbier, 2010, p. 20). Within this framework, economic stimulus packages were portrayed as a golden opportunity and entry point into a new green economy, with the low-carbon energy technology sector playing a critical role (IEA, 2009). In many countries (e.g. USA, China, South Korea) clean energy was heavily targeted (UNEP & GEI, 2009). While the opportunities connected to green growth strategies are appealing, there are few studies about their actual success in delivering the aspired win-win outcome. The literature regarding the effectiveness of green growth strategies and supportive policies is scattered. This case study of decarbonization in South Korea in a Green Economy context finds that, mainly due to a lack of ambitious supplementary reforms, public spending under a green growth strategy seems insufficient to offset economic growth effects on CO2 emissions.

The case of South Korea (hereafter Korea) is sticking out in the green growth debate as, together with China, it became the world leader in green growth spending. With 80% the share of green investments in Korea’s 2009 economic recovery package of USD 45 billion1 (representing 3% of GDP) was the largest worldwide (UNEP, 2010). The green stimulus package was already under the impression of President Lee Myung-bak’s 2008 announcement of “Low carbon, green growth” as the new development vision for the country. This vision inspired the “National Green Growth Strategy”, which was published in 2009. The strategy had “Mitigation of climate change & energy independence” as the first of three objectives. The other two objectives were “Securing new growth engines” and “Improving living standards and enhancing national status”, which included only the improvement of water and flood management and the construction of railways as further actions with direct relation to environmental goals (Presidential Commission on Green Growth, 2009). The Green Growth Strategy and its primary focus on climate change mitigation are reflected in several policies, above all the Five Year Plan for Green Growth (2009- 2013), which emerged from and overlapped with above mentioned stimulus package, and had a total volume of USD 98.8 billion (OECD, 2012).

There were several reasons for Korea to give a strong push towards the decarbonization of its energy economy. First, Korea is 97% dependent on imports for its primary energy supply (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2014), which means that energy security and reduced import costs are important co-benefits of climate change mitigation. Second, Korea is an OECD country with consistent and rapid economic growth over several decades (OECD, 2012), but it is one of only three OECD countries that do not have any emissions reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Third, Korea is a heavily industrialized country with a high share of energy intensive industry, in which a significant part of Korea’s economic capacity and welfare is rooted (Jeong & Kim, 2013). Fourth, renewable energy has only a marginal share in both primary energy supply and power generation, which also means that there is no strong domestic market for renewable energy technology, yet (N.-B. Park, Yun, & Jeon, 2013). Finally, and most importantly, Korea’s CO2 emissions from fuel combustion increased by 125% from 229Mt in 1990 to 516Mt in 2009 (IEA, 2014b).