Events Recap
Events Recap
2026 CDP Korea Conference
2026 CDP Korea Conference
Transition: Moving from Declaration
to Action
On March 10th, the Korea Sustainability Investing Forum (KoSIF), serving as the Secretariat of the CDP Korea Committee, held the ‘2026 CDP Korea Conference’ at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel.
With “Transition” as its central
theme, the conference brought together a diverse range of stakeholders from the
corporate, financial, and policy sectors to address a pivotal question: how
can the transition to a low-carbon economy be practically implemented? The
overarching emphasis was placed on the shift from mere declarations and
disclosures to tangible changes in industrial strategy and the financial
system.
Key Messages
1. Transition Is a Matter of Execution,
Not Declaration
Climate action is no longer confined to
long-term targets. The critical challenge now lies in how it is to be
implemented within actual economic activities — including corporate strategy,
investment decision-making, and policy design.
2. Data and Disclosure Are the Core
Infrastructure Enabling Transition
Environmental information disclosure and
reporting data serve as the foundational basis for evaluating and benchmarking
corporate climate performance. They function as essential information
infrastructure underpinning investment and policy decisions.
3. Transition Is an Ecosystem Co-Created
by Policy, Finance, and Industry
Advancing the climate transition in a
meaningful way requires a collaborative framework in which corporate strategy,
capital allocation by financial institutions, and institutional support from
policy all operate in concert.
Enabling the Transition Through Data
and Disclosure
In his opening address, Ji-in Jang,
Chairman of the CDP Korea Committee, emphasized that the transition from a
high-carbon to a low-carbon economy is an irreversible global trajectory, and
expressed the CDP Korea Committee's firm commitment to playing an active role
in converting the climate crisis into new economic opportunities.
Chun-seung Yang, Executive Director of the
Korea Sustainability Investing Forum, delivered a welcoming address in which he
explained that transition finance extends beyond simple green investment —
it represents the role of finance in supporting the structural transformation
of carbon-intensive industries. He stressed that transparent data and
disclosure are the essential starting point for this transition.
Video messages were delivered by Speaker Won-shik
Woo, Representative Jeong-ae Han, Minister Seong-hwan Kim of the Ministry of
Climate, Energy and Environment, and Han-joo Lee, Special Presidential Policy
Advisor, all of whom underscored the necessity of collaborative efforts among
the government, the National Assembly, the corporate sector, finance, and civil
society to advance the climate transition.
Representative Byeong-deok Min addressed
the future direction of domestic sustainability disclosure frameworks in
person, noting that in the initial stages of implementation, a pilot operation
utilizing exchange-based disclosures would be feasible, but that after a
transitional period, it would be necessary to shift to a statutory disclosure
system grounded in annual business reports. He further emphasized the
importance of introducing a ‘Safe Harbor’ provision to reduce the compliance
burden on companies, so that disclosure becomes an information infrastructure
that enhances corporate competitiveness rather than a regulatory constraint.
Information Infrastructure Supporting the Climate Transition
In his keynote address, José Ordóñez,
Managing Director of CDP Global APAC, highlighted that environmental
information disclosure is a vital tool that enables companies to identify new
economic opportunities — going far beyond mere regulatory compliance. He noted
that the integration of environmental data into business decision-making has
generated approximately USD 218 billion in environmentally related
opportunities globally, and described transparency as the core
infrastructure for strengthening market resilience.
Jong-dae Kim, Director of the SDG Research
Institute, emphasized that the success of transition finance ultimately depends
on meticulous design and execution, and called for a more proactive role from
financial institutions along with innovative approaches.
Can Transition Finance Drive Industrial Transformation?
The afternoon's high-level dialogue, titled
"Transition: Now Into Action," brought together experts from
the fields of policy, finance, data, and investment to deliberate on the
conditions necessary for transition finance to effectively drive real
industrial transformation.
The panelists emphasized that the
low-carbon transition represents not merely a policy objective, but a fundamental
restructuring of industrial structures and capital flows. A key message was
that transition finance can serve as a catalyst for industrial
transformation only when policy predictability, reliable corporate data and
disclosure, financial institutions' risk assessment frameworks, and investor
engagement all operate in alignment.
The subsequent common session shared
findings from CDP data analysis, illustrating that domestic companies'
climate responses are evolving beyond disclosure-centric approaches and
expanding into actual management strategies and risk management systems.
Notably, many companies are managing
climate change at the board level, and the integration of climate risk into enterprise-wide
risk management frameworks was confirmed as a significant trend.
Concrete Action Items for Industrial
Transition
The breakout sessions addressed a range of
challenges for realizing industrial transition in practice:
Transportation — Discussions centered on the
2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) enhancement and the revised
global EV100 standards, covering corporate strategies for transitioning to
electric vehicles. It was emphasized that EV transition is expanding beyond
environmental campaigns to become a management strategy interconnected with
vehicle procurement policy, logistics operations, and supply chain management.
→ Breakout
Session A: "2035 NDC and EV100: New Global Standards for Transition"
Finance — The K-GX (Korea Green
Transformation) strategy and the role of transition finance were central topics.
Given the high proportion of carbon-intensive industries in the domestic
industrial structure, the limitations of green finance alone were acknowledged,
and the need to establish a transition finance framework and accompanying
policy support was raised.
→ Breakout
Session B: "The Role of Finance in the K-GX Strategy: Focusing on
Transition Finance”
Renewable Energy — Centered on the concept
of 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy, this session introduced changes in renewable
energy certification frameworks. The shift in global regulations — from
annual to hourly renewable energy matching systems, as reflected in the EU
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and ongoing revisions to the GHG
Protocol Scope 2 guidance — was shared, with an emphasis on the need for both
corporate and policy-level responses.
→ Breakout
Session C: "Real-Time Renewable Energy Matching: Global Trends and Korea's
Response”
A Shared Journey Toward Climate
Transition
The 2026 CDP Korea Conference also
included a dedicated segment to recognize collaborative achievements in support
of the climate transition.
During the event, the Korea
Sustainability Investing Forum and the Korea Accounting Standards Board
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation on the advancement
of sustainability disclosure frameworks and related research, thereby
establishing a foundation for strengthening the domestic sustainable finance
ecosystem.
In addition, the 2025 CDP Korea Awards
ceremony was held, recognizing the climate performance of domestic
companies based on CDP's 2025 Climate Change and Water Management assessment
results. The occasion provided a platform to celebrate the efforts of companies
that have demonstrated outstanding performance in the areas of climate action
and water management.
Addressing the climate crisis has now
transcended the domain of environmental policy — it has become an imperative
of our era, demanding a systemic transformation across corporate strategy,
industrial structure, and the financial system as a whole.
This conference served as a forum to
collectively deliberate on the data, finance, policy, and industrial
strategies necessary to translate this transition into tangible action.
The Korea Sustainability Investing Forum
(CDP Korea Committee) will continue to support domestic companies and financial
institutions in strengthening their climate action in alignment with net-zero
transition pathways, and remains committed to ongoing collaboration toward a
sustainable future for Korea.
Detailed CDP trends and results in Korea and abroad for 2025, including Korean companies' climate management data, can be found in the 2025 CDP Korea Report: CDP Korea Climate Change and Water Report 2025.
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