Dr. Lee Jung chan
Research Fellow, Korea Research
Institute for Human Settlements
Education
2010.10.01.~2014.03.24 : University of Tokyo (Japan) PhD in Urban Engineering
2007.02.23.~2009.01.30 : KAIST (Korea), MS in Management Engineering
2001.03.01.~2007.02.02 : KAIST (Korea), BA in Management Engineering
Experience
2017.05.02. ~ Present : Research fellow at Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS; Korea)
* Research field: Carbon neutral, Green new deal, Hydrogen city, Smart city, etc
2014.04.23.~2017.04.30 : Associate research fellow at Science & Technology Policy Institute (STEPI, Korea)
2016.01.01.~2016.12.31 : Research fellow at Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology (PACST, Korea)
* Research field: Industrial ecosystem, Industry 4.0, Regional innovation system etc.
2010.02.01.~2010.09.30 : Researcher at Science & Technology Policy Institute
2009.08.20.~2010.01.30 : Visiting researcher at The Institute of Energy Economics , Japan (IEEJ, Japan)
2009.02.17.~2009.07.31 : Researcher at Science & Technology Policy Institute
Awards
2020.11.25 : Commendation from the Minister of Environment, the Government of the Republic of Korea
2020.12.31 : Commendation from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Government of the Republic of Korea
Korea officially started to push forward both the Digital New Deal and the Green New Deal with the announcement of the Korean-version New Deal project(July 14, 2020). It was intended to achieve three targets related to environment, economy, and society at the same time; to achieve an environmental target by converting the national economy into a green (low-carbon and eco-friendly) economy in response to the climate crisis, to achieve an economical target by strengthening the competitiveness of the eco-friendly and energy industries and creating jobs, and to achieve a societal target by improving the quality of life and increasing welfare in the field of energy and employment. To this end, the government established the eight policy tasks for the three policy fields: the green transition of urban, spatial, and living infrastructure, the diffusion of a low-carbon and distributed energy system, and the establishment of an innovative ecosystem for the green industry. By 2025, the government plans further to create 659 thousand jobs via investing 73.4 trillion KRW, including government expenditure of 42.7 trillion KRW.
As a global leader in the Green New Deal compared to other countries around the globe, the Korean government took a step on the challenging path of carbon neutrality to respond to the support of the international community. After the declaration of carbon neutrality 2050 at the National Assembly by then-president Moon Jae-in, the Korean government announced medium- and long-term promotional strategy at a comprehensive level and overtly declared the goal of carbon neutrality such as the establishment of 2050 Carbon Neutral Promotion Strategy(Dec. 7, 2020) and the submission of 2050 Long-term low greenhouse gas Emission Development Strategies(LEDS) to the United Nations(Oct. 18, 2021). Furthermore, the government enacted the Carbon Neutrality Act(Sep. 24, 2021) and announced the provisional 2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenario(Oct. 18, 2021).
Green New Deal must be important in all fields as a method to achieve the greater goal of carbon neutrality, but the role and significance of the industrial complex are far more important in all aspects of the environment, economy, and society. In terms of economy, as of the end of March this year, the total area of industrial complexes is 606㎢ with a 3.1% of the vacancy rate, accounting for only 0.6% of the nation’s total land area of 100,431㎢ as of the end of 2021. However, as of 2018, the annual energy consumption of industrial complexes in Korea was 110,866,100 toe, accounting for 53.5% of the total energy consumption of Korea, and if it was limited to the industrial sector, it took up 83.1% of the annual energy consumption in the whole industrial sector. In addition, the amount of greenhouse gas emitted by industrial complexes accounts for 45.1% of the total emission of Korea and 76.8% of the industrial sector. When it comes to the economy, industrial complexes play a fundamental role in the country’s economy and industry as well as a leading role in exports, contributing to about 65% of the production and export of Korea’s manufacturing industry. Socially, industrial complexes have a significant implication in the job safety net and social gap resolution because more than 1,260 industrial complexes hire around 2.3 million workers.
Taken together, it can be said that the carbon neutrality of industrial complexes is directly related to that of the country. A net-zero or zero-energy strategy for industrial complexes is necessary, given that the most of carbon is emitted from grey energy and industrial complexes are the highest energy-consuming places. For the net-zero in industrial complexes, the application of the strategy for improving energy performance should be expanded to the face level such as complex, district, and city, which has concentrated to the dot level such as building, factory, and facility. Firstly, in this context, it is necessary to strengthen connective cooperation for carbon neutrality in a wider spectrum of places; many cities and regions where would subsequently be affected by reaching net-zero carbon emission. By building integrated power plants at urban and regional levels by means of connecting individual renewable energy sources including industrial complexes for electricity production, it is required not only to rationalize power supply and demand management and to control peak-cut at the level of cities and regions but also to lay the foundation of cooperation related to both sharing energy data and resource circulation. Secondly, industrial complexes should have their own reinforced greenhouse gas management system. Continuing development and investment should be conducted to build an MRV system for measurement, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emitted by industrial complexes and to reach the level of real-time monitoring. Thirdly, it is needed to continuously invest in CCUS technology that captures and recycles already-emitted carbon, as well as to apply it to industrial complexes. Using industrial complexes as a test bed, technologies such as artificial photosynthesis should be applied on a trial basis and commercialized through continuous attempts.