The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said on the 10th that it will hold four roundtables with industry and experts over the next three weeks to discuss nurturing carbon-neutral industries and supporting the transition to decarbonization.
The roundtables were convened as part of the core state agenda item of "strengthening industrial carbon competitiveness" to lay the institutional groundwork to foster carbon-neutral industries such as Climate Tech as a new growth engine.
The National Assembly is also pushing to enact the Carbon-neutral Industry Act. Compared with the United States adopting the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 and the European Union (EU) adopting the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) in 2024, Korea is somewhat behind.
Experts and industry officials, including the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI), the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI), will take part in the roundtables to discuss overseas cases and domestic policy directions. Not only carbon-reducing industries such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and hydrogen, but also high-emitting sectors such as steel, refining, and semiconductors will attend to present on-the-ground views.
The ministry said it plans to systematically support the industry's transition to decarbonization by preparing a Carbon-neutral Industry Act bill and pushing institutional reforms based on opinions gathered at the roundtables.
Seo Yeong-tae, director-general for green transition policy at the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, said, "As the control ministry for climate and energy policy, we will push ahead swiftly with nurturing carbon-neutral industries and the industry's transition to decarbonization."