Green Growth Policy in the Republic of Korea: Its Promise and Pitfalls

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the promise and pitfalls of green growth policy in the Republic of Korea, and to uncover their implications on the design and implementation of successful policy in this area. Since President Lee Myung-bak declared a Low Carbon, Green Growth strategy in 2008 as a guiding vision for the nation's long-term development; green growth has become an important part of the new national development paradigm. The government has expended massive amounts of capital in this sphere, and expects its investment to generate wealth and well-being, increase employment, and reduce poverty and inequality. However, critics argue that green growth policy is just another name for the type of economic growth that was pursued in the 1970s and 1980s. According to these critics, green growth policy focuses mainly on economic growth and neglects to green society. Further, they argue that green growth policy is oriented to big business and the central government, and is thus inherently contradictory to the aim of sustainable development, which is to extend participation and involvement by local governments, local businesses, and local residents. This paper views green growth as an intermediate concept through which sustamable development can be achieved. On the basis of this concept of green growth, it scrutinizes both the pros and the cons of green growth policy, and discusses the policy's possible pitfalls. It then makes suggestions for a successful green growth policy.