Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Nov. 10 speaks at the fifth plenary session of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth at Government-Complex Seoul in Seoul's Jongno-gu District.

By Xu Aiying

The Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth has finalized a plan to further reduce by 2035 the country's greenhouse gas emissions in the 53%-61% range from 2018 levels.

The commission announced this on Nov. 10 at its fifth plenary meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok at Government Complex-Seoul in the capital's Jongno-gu District, approving the 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for raising the reduction target.

The NDC is a national target for such cuts decided and announced by each country every five years under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The 2035 NDC finalized at this meeting comprehensively reflects the urgency of solutions to the climate crisis, recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, burden of greenhouse gas reduction on future generations and conditions of industries.

Unlike the 2030 NDC that set a single target, the latest considers future uncertainties such as technological advances to use a range-based format similar to those of the European Union, Australia, Brazil and Canada.

Considering the manufacturing-centric industrial structure that emits a large volume of greenhouse gases and the feasibility of emission-lowering know-how, the targeted cut range in industry was lowered to 24.3%–31% from 2018 levels.

The reduction targets were set at 68.8%-75.3% for electricity, 53.6%-56.2% for construction and 60.2%-62.8% for transportation.

The newly approved 2035 NDC will be finalized after review in a Cabinet meeting on Nov. 11. It will be officially announced at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (U.N.) Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka COP30, that runs through Nov. 21 in Belem, Brazil, and submitted to the U.N. by the end of the year.

xuaiy@korea.kr