Environmental budget can be seen as an indicator on direction of environmental policy. The magnitude of environmental budget in Korea has increased almost 10 times from 12 billion Won in 1980 to 117 billion Won in 1990 and continued to grow more than 30% per year on average until 2001. The growth rate, however, has decreased in recent years as the higher priority is given to industrial investment for economic restoration.
Environmental budget in 2002 is 1,433.6 billion Won which is only 1.4% higher than 1,414.3 billion Won in 2001. The status of environmental quality in Korea, however, requires still greater investment. The investment area also needs to be changed from end-of-pipe emission reduction to cleaner production and pollution prevention in order to support sustainable development.