S. Korea ranks 6th in Asia on green growth index
- 5 years ago
In 2010, South Korea founded an organization to help countries develop their economies in a sustainable way.
It's called the Global Green Growth Institute.
Today, as part of the institute's Global Green Growth Week, it launched an index measuring how well countries are doing in that regard.
Our Choi Jeong-yoon tells us more.
A growing number of countries aspire to achieve green growth, and measuring their performance is becoming a priority.
That's why the Global Green Growth Institute has developed the Green Growth Index to track performance in 'greening' the productive economic sector.
"Well, we do believe that in order to manage something, you need to measure it... Then it would help countries measure themselves in their own performance, against others by having a matrix by which they could measure their performances."
The index is based on resource efficiency, the protection of natural capital, green economic opportunities and social inclusion.
And it's the first to benchmark green growth performance against the targets of international agreements such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The 115 countries on the index are measured on a scale from 1 to 100, but only 23 scored at a level considered "high."
The highest ranked country, with a score of 75, is Denmark.
All of the countries with a "high" score 60 points or more are in Europe.
In Asia, even the top countries scored only around 50 points.
Less developed countries like Malaysia and the Philippines were at the top... beating South Korea, which ranked 6th.
What held back South Korea was its lack of fossil fuels and other energy sources compared to the size of its economy.
It also scored low in terms of protecting the environment and a low ratio of forests to its total land area.
"Some areas where there is room for improvement are how Korea could scale up its use of renewable energy relative to its overall energy use, as well as use of fresh water relative to its available fresh water and biodiversity conservation relative to how much of the land is protected."
By 2020, the Global Green Growth Institute plans to pilot its "Policy Simulation Tool" which shows the possible results of applying certain green growth policies... to help governments understand the impact of different investment decisions.
Choi Jeong-yoon, Arirang News.
It's called the Global Green Growth Institute.
Today, as part of the institute's Global Green Growth Week, it launched an index measuring how well countries are doing in that regard.
Our Choi Jeong-yoon tells us more.
A growing number of countries aspire to achieve green growth, and measuring their performance is becoming a priority.
That's why the Global Green Growth Institute has developed the Green Growth Index to track performance in 'greening' the productive economic sector.
"Well, we do believe that in order to manage something, you need to measure it... Then it would help countries measure themselves in their own performance, against others by having a matrix by which they could measure their performances."
The index is based on resource efficiency, the protection of natural capital, green economic opportunities and social inclusion.
And it's the first to benchmark green growth performance against the targets of international agreements such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The 115 countries on the index are measured on a scale from 1 to 100, but only 23 scored at a level considered "high."
The highest ranked country, with a score of 75, is Denmark.
All of the countries with a "high" score 60 points or more are in Europe.
In Asia, even the top countries scored only around 50 points.
Less developed countries like Malaysia and the Philippines were at the top... beating South Korea, which ranked 6th.
What held back South Korea was its lack of fossil fuels and other energy sources compared to the size of its economy.
It also scored low in terms of protecting the environment and a low ratio of forests to its total land area.
"Some areas where there is room for improvement are how Korea could scale up its use of renewable energy relative to its overall energy use, as well as use of fresh water relative to its available fresh water and biodiversity conservation relative to how much of the land is protected."
By 2020, the Global Green Growth Institute plans to pilot its "Policy Simulation Tool" which shows the possible results of applying certain green growth policies... to help governments understand the impact of different investment decisions.
Choi Jeong-yoon, Arirang News.