Gyeonggi Province and Naver Announce 'Climate Action Income Implementation Partnership'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gab-dong] Gyeonggi Province and Naver are linking the ‘Climate Action Climate Income’ project with the ‘Naver ESG Program’ to practice climate action.

The province held the second full meeting of the Gyeonggi Province Climate Crisis Response Committee on the 3rd at Naver 1784 headquarters in Seongnam and announced a ‘Climate Action Income Implementation Partnership’ to this effect.

Governor Kim Dong-yeon stated, "This week is Gyeonggi Province's climate super week. Yesterday, we held an international clean air forum commemorating the Day of Blue Skies, which was created when Gyeonggi Province proposed it to the UN. Following today, tomorrow we will sign an agreement with professional sports teams in the province including baseball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball regarding reusable containers," and explained, "Gyeonggi Province has many projects that are first in Korea in responding to climate issues, such as the Gyeonggi RE100, climate fund, climate satellite, and climate insurance."

He particularly highlighted two projects he has special attachment to: ‘Climate Action Climate Income’ and ‘Citizen Climate Assembly.’

Governor Kim said, "The Climate Action Climate Income is for 14.2 million Gyeonggi residents to practice a lifestyle responding to climate crisis in their daily lives. No matter how hard we work on climate policy, I believe it ultimately fails if it is not internalized in the lives of citizens. More than 1.5 million residents have participated in the Climate Action Climate Income app," expressing pride in the achievement.

Regarding the Citizen Climate Assembly, he explained, "Two months ago, we received applications from residents and created a Citizens Assembly to respond to climate crisis. We wanted to create a consultation system with actual resident participation. While there are no decision-making or legislative powers like in the National Assembly or Provincial Assembly, I thought we could create a system where matters discussed and decided there are handled as agenda items in the executive branch to some extent. While we had to start with limited specific topics, I want to create such policies through the Citizen Climate Assembly."

Governor Kim continued, "Today's agenda is an agenda that opens new indicators for climate and administration," and added, "Centered on the committee chair, I hope we can create a place where we can review matters beyond the technical and administrative aspects, to social structures and further policy decision-making and even political structures."

The Gyeonggi Province Climate Crisis Response Committee is the highest-level deliberative body for Gyeonggi Province's climate policy, operating with a total of 41 members comprised of 15 standing members including Governor Kim Dong-yeon as co-chair and real department heads related to carbon neutrality, as well as 26 appointed members from provincial assembly members, academics, industry representatives, and representatives from women, youth, and labor sectors.

On this day, Gyeonggi Province and Naver announced the ‘Climate Action Income Implementation Partnership.’ The content involves linking the ‘Climate Action Climate Income’ project developed and operated by Gyeonggi Province with the ‘Naver ESG Program.’

In place of paper mail, the province plans to link Naver's electronic document service to provide rewards when receiving mail as electronic documents and convert the accumulated climate action rewards received through activity achievements into Naver Happy Bean to participate in various social contribution programs.

The Climate Action Climate Income, which has achieved the milestone of surpassing 1.5 million cumulative subscribers since the app launch in July last year, is expected to become an innovative case of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through collaboration with Naver, a global RE100 company. This is expected to establish a virtuous cycle model where climate-friendly activities of Gyeonggi residents lead to eco-friendly consumption and eco-friendly social contribution.

Furthermore, at the meeting, the ‘Gyeonggi Climate Platform’ which provides integrated climate, environment, and energy data was explained, along with its renewable energy site analysis and climate management services. The meeting discussed a wide range of topics including policy establishment related to recent extreme heavy rain, landslides, and heat waves, and ways that residents can easily utilize such services.

Subsequently, for visible results of ‘Gyeonggi RE100,’ the province announced renewable energy expansion projects on a scale of 19.8MW by investing 74.9 billion won in provincial funds, including △installation of solar panels using public parking lots △establishing a solar farm model for agricultural use △converting abandoned riverside areas into low-carbon waterfront parks △establishing railway regenerative energy utilization systems △installing solar panels at livestock farms and expanding solar power generation at Eco-Farmland. Gyeonggi Province plans to increase energy transition implementation by internalizing climate policy throughout provincial administration and actively support the national energy transition through its role as a pace-setter for the current government.

Meanwhile, Naver 1784 headquarters, where the full committee meeting was held on this day, is a space designed as the world's first robot-friendly facility that fuses and experiments with cutting-edge technologies such as AI, cloud, robots, digital twins, and autonomous driving in an actual building.