- Date2021-11-02 14:27
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This year marked the 25th anniversary of Korea’s membership in the OECD.
President Jeyong Yoon participated as one of the panel members in the seminar held on- and offline by the OECD on Thursday, October 28, titled “Korea and the OECD: 25 Years and Beyond.” The event took place at the Conference Center Auditorium at the OECD Headquarters, Paris, and was streamed live.
Source: Permanent Delegation of the ROK to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Directors of 6 departments of the OECD, including Alvaro Pereira, Director of the Country Studies Branch at the OECD Economics Department and Romina Boarini, Director of the OECD Center for Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability, and Equal Opportunity (WISE), attended the event. From Korea, 5 members including Jeyong Yoon, President of KEI, Bang Ran Ryu, President of the Korea Education Development Institute (KEDI), and Kim Sung-taek, Vice President of the Korea Labor Institute (KLI) participated.
Clockwise from top-left: Directors from OECD, Bang Ran Ryu (President of KEDI), Sung-taek Kim (Vice President of KLI), Jeyong Yoon (President of KEI)
In the 2nd panel session of the seminar devoted to the fields of environment, education, and labor, President Jeyong Yoon delivered a presentation on Korea’s efforts and achievements in the past several decades in environmental protection and preservation, the current issues and challenges Korea is facing to create a better environment, and its future tasks.
Overall, Korea has seen dramatic improvements in various sectors, including solid waste recycling, sewer system supply, and air quality in terms of lead concentration. Also, the percentage of protected areas increased by almost three times in 2018 compared to 1990. Air quality has greatly improved since the introduction of the Seasonal Fine Dust Management System in 2019, which contributed to a significant decrease in fine dust concentration. Other major accomplishments included the decreased number of chemical accidents, improved water supply facilities, and the increase in recycled amounts of hard-to-recycle PET bottles.
Despite these achievements, the president pointed out that the Korean citizens are still concerned over issues such as climate change, hazardous chemicals, tap water, and so on. Among many environmental issues, fine dust still recorded the highest score as the biggest concern, according to the survey conducted by the National Statistical Office last year. Greenhouse gas emissions were also on the rise until 2016. President Jeyong Yoon attributed the causes of these unsolved problems to limitations of end-of-pipe management as well as fragmented management, low policy compliance, and limitations of domestic pollutant management. To address these pending issues, he said that a paradigm shift in environmental management is urgent, emphasizing the importance of prevention and integration. In addition, he highlighted the necessity to use the environmental crises we are in as an opportunity to create a better living environment, as we have done successfully in the development and implementation of the Korean Green New Deal.
For the future, President Jeyong Yoon cited sustainable development as a key priority. Also, to tackle global issues such as climate change, he called for international efforts, promising at the same time that Korea will endeavor to embrace multilateralism and play the role of a middle power.