International Community Joint Response Including US and Europe... Seoul City Also Actively Promotes
Buildings Account for Nearly 70% of City's Greenhouse Gas Emissions... Plan to Improve Energy Efficiency of 122,000 Public Buildings by 2026
Some Results Emerging... Energy Efficiency Improvements in Aging National and Public Daycare Centers and Senior Centers
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Last year, the world suffered damages worth 202 trillion won due to the top 10 disasters including floods and heatwaves. As abnormal climate events have become frequent enough to be felt due to accumulated greenhouse gas emissions, experts have repeatedly warned that if greenhouse gas emissions remain at the current level, the average annual temperature will rise by more than 4℃ in the latter half of the 21st century, leading to a climate catastrophe.
The international community is also continuing joint responses to the climate crisis at hand. In particular, efforts are being made to convert buildings such as offices and residences, where greenhouse gas emissions are continuously increasing, into low-carbon facilities. Notably, the U.S. government announced in December last year a plan to invest an astronomical 1,000 trillion won by 2045 to convert all federal buildings into Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB). The European Union (EU) has set a policy requiring energy performance improvement work on more than 3% of the total area of public buildings annually.
According to Seoul City on the 10th, the city is also accelerating projects to convert not only public buildings but also private buildings into low-carbon buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector, which accounts for nearly 70% of total emissions. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon established a comprehensive climate change response plan in February, focusing on converting one million buildings into low-carbon buildings, and announced plans to improve the energy efficiency of 122,000 public buildings and 878,000 private buildings by 2026.
Some results have already appeared. As a result of analyzing the greenhouse gas reduction effects through an agreement with the Korea Land and Housing Safety Management Institute and Sungkyunkwan University, last year, green remodeling projects were carried out on 118 aging national and public daycare centers and medical facilities, reducing 344 tons of greenhouse gases. This corresponds to an average reduction of 17% per building, equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed by 42,000 pine trees.
In particular, Doseon Daycare Center in Dobong-gu, selected as a target for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 'Public Building Green Remodeling Signature Project,' showed a 27% reduction in energy demand and a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions after remodeling.
Seoul City plans to build on these achievements to improve energy efficiency in more facilities used by vulnerable groups such as senior centers and daycare centers, while enhancing energy welfare. The goal is to convert senior centers to Zero Energy Building standards, improving energy performance by 75%, and to improve energy performance by 30% through green remodeling projects for daycare centers.
The Zero Energy conversion project for senior centers targets 868 senior centers in autonomous districts that have been completed for more than 15 years. The plan is to carry out projects on 321 buildings by 2026, obtain energy efficiency grade 1++ or higher certification, secure a certain level of self-sufficiency, and create a comfortable residential environment.
Yoo Yeon-sik, head of Seoul City's Climate and Environment Headquarters, said, "We have carried out projects on 24 senior centers until last year and plan to complete construction within this year," adding, "Once the 24 centers complete the Zero Energy conversion work, it is expected to reduce about 483 tons of CO2 annually." Seoul City plans to newly promote Zero Energy Building projects for 13 senior centers this year and convert 50 centers into low-carbon buildings next year after conducting demand surveys in autonomous districts.
Following senior centers, the project to convert daycare centers through green remodeling will also be significantly expanded. The target includes 628 daycare centers that have been completed for more than 10 years, with a goal to improve energy performance by 30% through window and heating/cooling system replacements in 502 buildings by 2026.
This year, projects are underway at 85 locations including Seonwoo Daycare Center in Gangnam-gu, and next year, more than 100 public buildings will be renovated. Currently, preliminary surveys and consulting are being conducted on 115 aging daycare centers in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and autonomous districts.
Head Yoo emphasized, "We have created an environment where climate-vulnerable groups can live healthily and comfortably," and added, "We will actively promote low-carbon building projects including public building green remodeling and strive to expand them into the private sector."
Meanwhile, Seoul City has pledged to take the lead in creating a social atmosphere for spreading low-carbon buildings together with related organizations and remodeling contractors. Seoul City plans to provide administrative support to actively participate in building energy efficiency, develop a brand identity (BI) to change perceptions of eco-friendly buildings and build public consensus, and prepare a 'Seoul-type Low-Carbon Building Certification Plan' linked with domestic and international green building certification systems.
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