Mayor Yeom Tae-young and Minister Cho Myung-rae Achieve Fruitful Results in 'Climate Crisis Response' Cooperation

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] The climate crisis cooperation between Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young and Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae has borne fruit.

According to Suwon City, the 'Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance' held its launch ceremony on the 7th at the ASEM Ballroom in COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul. The alliance includes 63 basic local governments including Suwon City and 17 metropolitan governments.

The Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance establishes and implements greenhouse gas reduction plans aimed at achieving 'zero carbon dioxide emissions' to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

'Carbon neutrality' means making the actual carbon dioxide emissions 'zero' by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide absorption to match the amount of carbon dioxide emissions generated in a region. It means bringing the total amount of carbon dioxide to a neutral state.

According to the IPCC's '1.5℃ Special Report,' achieving 'global carbon neutrality' by 2050 can limit the rise in global temperature to within 1.5℃ by 2100.

The Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance began when Mayor Yeom Tae-young and Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae attended the '9th Korea-Denmark Green Growth Alliance Meeting' held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December last year. During the meeting, Mayor Yeom and Minister Cho exchanged views on responding to the climate crisis and 'carbon neutrality.'

Minister Cho Myung-rae requested of Mayor Yeom Tae-young, "Please actively cooperate in responding to the climate crisis," and Mayor Yeom Tae-young promised cooperation, saying, "Local governments will take the lead in climate action."

Mayor Yeom Tae-young, who serves as chairman of the National Association of Mayors and Heads of Local Governments, announced plans to organize the 'Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance' and requested participation from local governments nationwide. Mayor Kwon Young-jin of Daegu (chairman of the Korean Association of Metropolitan Governments) also proposed participation to metropolitan governments nationwide, and 17 metropolitan governments promised to participate.

The discussions between Mayor Yeom Tae-young and Minister Cho Myung-rae, which began in Denmark, bore fruit after more than seven months.

The launch ceremony consisted of remarks by Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the National Council for Climate and Environment; remarks by Minister Cho Myung-rae of the Ministry of Environment; keynote address by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon; introduction of the purpose and major activities of the practice alliance by Mayor Yeom Tae-young (chairman of the National Association of Mayors and Heads of Local Governments); and a business agreement between the Ministry of Environment and the Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance.

The Ministry of Environment and the Carbon Neutral Local Government Practice Alliance signed an agreement and promised active cooperation. The local government practice alliance decided to expand organizations for climate action and enact ordinances reflecting carbon neutrality to 'establish a foundation for carbon neutrality promotion.'

Additionally, through ▲grasping greenhouse gas emissions within cities ▲establishing carbon neutrality implementation roadmaps ▲transparent implementation evaluation and monitoring ▲introducing reduction measures reflecting regional characteristics, they decided to realize the core values required by the 'new climate system.'

They also decided to maintain cooperative relationships with the central government to propose policies and establish 'carbon neutrality' as a universal value through education and publicity based on local governance, thereby encouraging citizen participation.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young stated, "The only choice in the age of climate crisis is carbon neutrality," and added, "Local governments will take practical action as the main subject of carbon neutrality policies and as a reliable cooperative partner of the central government."

He continued, "Just as local government policies came together to create 'K-quarantine' in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the climate crisis situation, local governments can serve as the main subjects to create a 'global city climate crisis response model.'"

Meanwhile, the city derived the 'Suwon City Carbon Neutral City Development Basic Strategy' in April. It has established key indicator roadmaps for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared to 2005 by 2050 and prepared the '3H Suwon Strategy' and '20 implementation tasks across 7 sectors.'

The three major strategies are 'implementing a phased carbon neutrality model (Hub),' 'leading energy transition based on hydrogen fuel (Hydrogen),' and 'sustainable development through integrated urban policy (Hybrid).'

The seven sectors are ▲energy transition ▲transportation ▲buildings ▲waste ▲green infrastructure ▲international cooperation and raising citizen awareness ▲systematic verification and research.