South Korea lights the way on carbon emissions with its £23bn green deal (LED's in public buildings)

South Korea lights the way on carbon emissions with its £23bn green deal

Seoul's huge financial stimulus package pledges 81% for a swath of environmental projects. But activists fear a wave of construction may increase the country's carbon footprint

Jonathan Watts in Seoul
The Guardian, Tuesday 21 April 2009

The secretary for future vision is considering how many South Koreans it takes to change a million lightbulbs. No joke.

Kim Sang-hyo, the president's extravagantly titled right-hand man, is trying to create more than 940,000 green jobs and improve his country's energy efficiency at the same time. Switching every bulb in every public building in South Korea to light-emitting diodes by the end of this year is one, very small, element in the master plan of what has been described as the greenest new deal on the planet.

Since the start of the financial crisis last year, governments across the globe have been talking up the environmental content of their fiscal stimulus programmes and being judged by their efforts to save the planet. US president Barack Obama and the Chinese government have been praised for their ambitious plans to invest in renewable power, clean transport and energy-efficient buildings. Britain, by contrast, has been castigated for the relatively miserly sums it has so far committed to green projects. Alistair Darling's budget tomorrow will be closely scrutinised from the same perspective.

But no matter what the UK promises, it will pale in comparison with the green boasts of South Korea's 50tn won (£23bn) plan. According to an international ranking by the bank HSBC, 81% of the money is earmarked for green projects, easily the highest proportion in the world and vastly more than the 7% share in the UK.

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