Seoul Metropolitan Council Environment and Water Resources Committee Increases Green New Deal Budget by 50 Billion Won

Revised Approval of Climate Environment Headquarters Budget of 630.4 Billion Won Including 50 Billion Won Increase for Green New Deal... Hwan Su Committee Members Point Out Green New Deal Budget Shortage and Inappropriate Budget Allocation... Chairman Kim Jeonghwan: "We Will Do Our Best to Achieve Carbon Neutral City Seoul by 2050"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Environment and Water Resources Committee (Chairman Jeonghwan Kim·photo) completed the preliminary review on the 23rd, mainly increasing the Green New Deal-related budget by 50 billion KRW in the Climate Environment Headquarters' budget proposal and fund operation plan.

In the preliminary review, the Climate Environment Headquarters proposed a 2021 general account and urban development special account budget of 575.6 billion KRW, a 28.1% decrease compared to the previous year.

Of this, 42.3%, or 243.8 billion KRW, is allocated as the Green New Deal project budget, but this amount falls far short of the 2.6 trillion KRW to be intensively invested by 2022 under the "2050 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy through Green New Deal Promotion."

Committee members of the Environment and Water Resources Committee strongly pointed out at the preliminary review that the Green New Deal-related budget is insufficient and that the greenhouse gas emissions and budget size by sector are allocated inversely. They ordered the development of new projects in the building sector, which has a relatively small budget compared to its emissions.

Among Seoul's sectoral greenhouse gas emissions, the building sector accounts for 68.2% and the transportation sector 19.4%. However, 73.4% of the Climate Environment Headquarters' Green New Deal project budget, 179 billion KRW, is allocated to the transportation sector, while the building sector budget is less than 7%, only 15.9 billion KRW.

Chairman Jeonghwan Kim stated, “The Environment and Water Resources Committee will actively cooperate in carrying out Seoul's ‘2050 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy through Green New Deal Promotion,’ and will do its best to achieve a ‘carbon-neutral city, Seoul’ by 2050.”

Also, Song Myunghwa, vice-chair of the Environment and Water Resources Committee and chair of the Green New Deal Subcommittee, urged, “The Climate Environment Headquarters should actively reflect the issues pointed out during the review process in city administration and operation, and do their best to ensure there are no disruptions in the execution of the revised budget.”