"Need to Expand Incentives for Companies Participating in Greenhouse Gas Reduction"

Gwangju City Councilor Park Mijeong: "Establish a System Framework"

Park Mi-jung, Gwangju City Council member.

There has been a claim that expanding incentives is necessary for voluntary greenhouse gas reduction and capacity building among companies.

Park Mijeong, a member of the Gwangju Metropolitan Council (Democratic Party, Dong-gu 2), stated during the administrative audit of the Gwangju Climate and Environment Bureau on the 12th, “Gwangju has achieved the result of being the first in the nation to introduce ‘Corporate Carbon Action’ targeting small and medium-sized enterprises,” adding, “To encourage active participation from companies without legal reduction obligations, expanding incentives is necessary.”

‘Corporate Carbon Action’ is a system where local small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies, which are not subject to mandatory carbon reduction, voluntarily reduce greenhouse gases and conduct simulated trading of emission permits.

In May, the city signed a ‘Corporate Carbon Action Business Agreement for Gwangju 2045 Carbon Neutrality’ with 12 local companies and the Korea Energy Agency. Participating companies will conduct simulated trading of emission permits generated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 11% by 2030.

While strengthening corporate competitiveness is urgent to achieve Gwangju 2045 Carbon Neutrality, the benefits given to participating companies are limited to partial subsidies for energy use diagnosis and improvement direction suggestions, and one additional point for the Excellent Small and Medium Enterprise Award.

Councilor Park emphasized, “Achieving carbon neutrality is difficult with only the obligations presented by the government or Gwangju, and voluntary market activation is necessary,” adding, “To induce participation from more companies, an incentive system framework must be established.”

She also urged, “Voluntary participation by companies is the first step toward carbon neutrality,” and requested, “Please make efforts for Gwangju to lead the way in achieving carbon neutrality.”