2050 탄소중립 목표 실현을 위한 입법적 과제

Korea is participating in the international community's response to climate change by joining the 1992 Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and the Paris Agreement in 2015. Although it was classified as a developing country under the Kyoto Protocol and did not bear the obligation to reduce carbon emissions, Korea announced a voluntary reduction plan in 2009 called ‘30% reduction based on BAU by 2020’. Carbon emissions in 2020 increased by more than 100 million tonnes compared to 2009 as a result of not taking practical follow-up measures to reduce. However, in 2013, the Lee Myung-bak administration announced a plan to license seven new large-scale privately funded coal-fired power plants. The ETS, which was introduced as a major means of reducing carbon emissions in 2015, turned out generous allocation of emission rights to companies. These government policies demonstrate lack of sincerity of its intention to reduce carbon emissions. Since most of Korea's carbon emissions come from energy consumption, carbon reduction policies can be achieved through energy conversion, reorganization of energy-consuming industrial structures, and suppression of energy demand in all areas of society. However adhering to a low energy price policy, Korea is going in the opposite direction to reducing carbon emissions. In 2020, the Moon Jae-in administration again jumped on the bandwagon of the international community’s active movement to respond to the climate crisis, and declared that it would achieve carbon neutrality, which means zero net carbon emissions by 2050, and enacted the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality in 2021 to legalize the goal of carbon neutrality. And as a mid- to long-term goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a 40% reduction in emissions compared to 2018 by 2030 was stipulated in the Enforcement Decree of the Act. The government has shown a stronger will than before by legislating the carbon neutral goal and intermediate goals in the legislation, but it is still criticized for not having any practical measures to achieve the goal. Rather than making practical and technical efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the Korean government has poured a lot of energy into only packaging slogans for “green growth.” Even if the Korean government’s policy itself is called ‘greenwashing’, what can be said? The Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality, which has been in effect since March 2022, covers a number of abstract policy measures to achieve carbon neutrality goals. The international community is responding in all directions in response to the climate crisis, and global companies are also accelerating the separation of growth and carbon for a sustainable economy. Traditional carbon-dependent businesses will increasingly lose ground. Large corporations in Korea, which have sensed the atmosphere of the times, are also making efforts to transform quickly. As Joseph Stieglitz said, “The problem is politics,” Korea is also becoming a situation where politics is holding back the economy. Politicians and the media are wasting precious time on political arguments rather than making efforts to draw a national consensus on the sharing of transition costs and serious discussions about the climate crisis. The climate crisis clock is now rapidly ticking down to six years. In this article, I first look at the current climate crisis situation and how the international community and global economic actors are moving in response to it, and argue that the implementation of the 2050 carbon neutral goal is not a matter of choice. In addition, the current status of carbon emissions in Korea, carbon policy, and the contents of the Carbon Neutral Framework Act are reviewed, and the Act is critically reviewed. Finally, practical policy measures and subsequent legislative directions needed to reduce carbon emissions are briefly presented.