The Bank of Korea (BOK) has published research outlining the need for swift green finance policy reforms to accelerate South Korea’s decarbonisation progress. The report, which covered 59 countries and their decarbonisation efforts, warned that South Korea’s pace of emission reduction remains significantly slower than in other developed nations, highlighting the importance of a comprehensive shift to more sustainable technologies and industries. Despite South Korea being a high-income nation, it has fallen behind Group of Seven countries, which have entered the “decoupling” phase, where they are transitioning away from carbon-intensive practices, the report said. BOK pointed to the country’s economic structure, which remains reliant on labour-intensive and low value-added service industries, such as retail and restaurants. As such, the bank has proposed measures to enhance domestic efforts to incentivise green finance, including the introduction of transition-focused finance to complement green capital flows.
