GREEN GROWTH: FROM RELIGION TO REALITY - Sustainia

Chapter 63 Government role in green growthThe government has historically played a major role indeveloping globally competitive domestic industries inKorea. Yet meeting Korea’s green growth goals requirethe development of new tools for economic guidance.The three objectives of green growth—reducing greenhousegas emissions and promoting energy security,achieving accelerated levels of economic growth, andimproving the quality of life while also contributing tothe international community—implies a paradigm shiftthat requires participation from all parts of the countryand all levels of the economy – not just the top-level decisionmakers and Korea’s leading conglomerates. Thegovernment has started progress in this regard, by settingup channels for public-private collaboration. ThePresidential Committee for Green Growth (PCGG) isone such institution: it includes the President, PrimeMinister, 14 Ministers and 36 private experts, and it alsoactively seeks input.The Korean government historically had a tight relationshipwith conglomerate firms, which facilitatedsteps aimed at driving economic growth. Today, thegovernment is concentrated on maintaining such relationships,amid the growing influences and sometimesdiverging interests of conglomerate firms. Challenges tochanging the pricing structures of the electricity marketor introducing carbon pricing systems come in partfrom a need to earn the cooperation of the industrialsector, which has a critical part in the government plansfor green growth.4 ConclusionThe Korean case is unusual in the extent to which itsmultiple objectives – energy security, economic growth,and emissions reduction – intertwine to create a commonpurpose. As its goals are currently formulated, thereis little conflict between these three objectives. Accordingto the plan, green growth will lower emission reductions,improve energy security, create significant employment,and drive economic growth, all in a “greener” way. Thisunity of purpose could translate to an unusually unifiedcoalition of interests supporting these goals, assumingthe different actors involved (government, business, consumers)can reach comparable unity on the tools to useto get to the desired outcomes."Yet conglomerate businesses have picked up greentechnology because it is a product that will sell"Of course the pleasant rhetoric of “green,” “environment-friendly,”and “emissions reductions” is not alwayswarmly welcomed by businessmen – Korea is no differentin this from many other countries. Yet conglomeratebusinesses have picked up green technology because it isa product that will sell. In the end, their green technologieswill reduce emissions and support better energy security.A strong perception of a purely economic rationalestrengthens the overall rationale for Korea’s packageof energy objectives and helps build a coalition of interestedparties. The fact that the country has a uniting economicincentive pushing for green growth is a strength.Korea does face meaningful challenges in achievingmany of its goals. Yet considering that green growth isstill at a very early stage of development, the governmenthas definitely taken significant steps, such as laying outthe institutional framework necessary for green growth.It is prepared to take active roles in delivering many ofits promises to emerge as a role model for later developingcountries in realizing the green growth paradigm forsustainable and balanced growth."Korea may also be somewhat unique in the scope andtimeline of its ambitions"Korea may also be somewhat unique in the scope andtimeline of its ambitions. In this discussion we have, directlyor implicitly, discussed a variety of transformationsthat are being undertaken or must be undertaken as partof Korea’s desired paradigm shift: a shift in power sourcesand use; a restructuring of the energy market and itspricing structure; a possible shift in industrial structuretoward more incorporation of small and medium-sizedfirms that are natural fits for emerging niches in new industries;a shift in international role toward a more assertiveleadership in standard-making. And these are justa subset of the range of changes Korea wants to make;shifts beyond our scope of discussion here range fromchanges in ecological approach to mass transit to buildingand urban planning to citizen lifestyle.Individually, these shifts are important. But takentogether, the whole may be greater than the sum of itsparts, if Korea succeeds in restructuring the expectations,logic, and behavior of Korea’s society and economy into anew, self-sustaining “green” whole with a momentum ofits own – what President Lee Myung-bak termed “a newnational development paradigm” (Lee 2008). We have arguedthat we have seen such self-reinforcing transformationsoccur, to greatly varying degrees, in the companioncases of Denmark and California. However, if Korea succeedsin a similar paradigm shift, its transformation willbe somewhat unique in being the result less of the kindof path-dependent, evolutionary process seen in thosecases, and more of a conscious effort undertaken at a historicmoment. It remains to be seen how fully Korea willsucceed with its goals – individually and as a coherentwhole – but the process commands attention from scholarsof green growth policy.Green Growth: From religion to reality 73