Events Recap

RE100 Forum: Navigating Korea's Energy Transition Framework

The Korea Sustainability Investing Forum (KoSIF) and Climate Group jointly hosted the RE100 Forum: Navigating Korea's Energy Transition Framework at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Tuesday, December 9.

The forum brought together RE100 member companies, policymakers, academics and related stakeholders to examine the alignment between Korea's renewable energy policies, regulatory framework and its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and to discuss the policy and institutional tasks required to meet the actual renewable energy demand of businesses.

The forum opened with welcoming remarks from Karl Chun Seung Yang, Executive Director of the Korea Sustainability Investing Forum and Ollie Wilson, Head of RE100 at the Climate Group. Executive Director Yang underscored the importance of the renewable energy transition at a turning point for Korea's economy and industrial competitiveness, and expressed hope that the forum would serve as a practical ground for discussion linking government policy, corporate demand and evidence-based analysis provided by academic research.

Ollie Wilson then pointed to the rapid global growth in renewable energy use, noting that in the first half of this year renewables overtook coal to become the most widely used source of power generation. He stressed that Korea, which has the lowest renewable energy share among the 32 IEA member countries, needs to take a more active part in the global renewable energy transition.

Congratulatory remarks were then delivered by Seong gon Wi, Chair of the National Assembly Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. Chair Wi noted that the climate crisis is no longer a matter for the future but a present reality, and emphasized that renewable energy is the surest means of achieving greenhouse gas reductions and energy security at the same time. He also said the National Assembly would work to make renewable energy easier to secure through regulatory rationalization and support measures.

 In the first presentation, Kookhyun Lim, Director of the Renewable Energy Policy Division at the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment(MCEE) spoke on 'Strategies for a Renewables-Centered Transition in the Age of Electrification.' He highlighted the importance of a stable, affordable clean power supply in an age of electrification in which electricity demand is rising sharply with the increase in data centers and the spread of electric vehicles. He explained that the government is reviewing plans to build an 'energy highway' to accommodate more renewable energy, to develop industrial complexes centered on renewables, and to expand renewable energy capacity to around 100 GW by 2030. He also added that deployment would be accelerated through simplified permitting procedures for offshore wind and solar, reform of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and expanded financial support for renewable energy.

Next, Professor Jungmin Lim of Pukyong National University and Professor Taeyoung Jin of Jeonbuk National University presented the findings of their joint research on 'Assessing the alignment of the Korea’s Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity Supply and Demand(BPLE) and the 2035 NDC target'. Professor Lim analyzed that NDC 3.0 sets a more ambitious target than before, and that the 11th BPLE implies steep reductions between 2028 and 2030. It was also noted that the pace of renewable energy deployment must be raised in view of growing electricity demand.

Professor Jin compared electricity demand projections for RE100 member companies with the domestic renewable energy supply potential, explaining that current plans alone will make it difficult to fully meet corporate renewable energy demand over the medium to long term once differentiated demand is considered. He emphasized PPAs and self-generation as the most economical procurement options from a corporate perspective, and recommended expanding a 'local production for local consumption' model by linking demand and supply at the regional level based on developing renewable energy industrial complexes (RE100 industrial complexes) and the Distributed Energy Act.

 The forum closed with a panel discussion moderated by Taehan Kim, COO of the Korea Sustainability Investing Forum, in which Director Kookhyun Lim of the MCEE, Professor Jungmin Lim of Pukyong National University, Professor Taeyoung Jin of Jeonbuk National University, Juman Kim, Korea Country Manager at GWEC, and Gyujong Choi, Head of the Green Energy Center at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry took part in a discussion on policy tasks for accelerating Korea's renewable energy transition and on ways to broaden corporate participation. The panelists agreed that expanding the power grid, strengthening confidence in the regulatory system, and creating an environment for long-term corporate renewable energy procurement are the key tasks, and stressed the importance of cooperation among government, businesses and expert institutions.

Inquiries: Seungyoun Seo, Senior Researcher syseo@kosif.org, Nahyun Nam, Senior Researcher nhn5505@kosif.org