Air Pollution

Korea's air quality visibly deteriorated in the 1960-80s due to rapid industrialization and economic growth. Especially with high population density and high energy use per dollar of GDP, the volume of air pollution emissions per unit area is relatively greater compared to that of other industrialized countries. The rapid increase in the number of automobiles, from 280,000 in 1980 to 14 million in 2003, also account for a huge portion of air pollution. Automobile exhausts took up 80 percent of the total CO emissions, 45 percent of NO2 and 33 percent of PM10 emissions in 2001.

Blue Sky 21

In order to bring up Korea's air quality to the level of advanced countries by 2012, the government initiated the Blue Sky 21 Project (2003-2012) to curtail the emission of major pollutants by 40-70 percent of the 2000 figure. Blue Sky 21 introduces total pollution load management, away from the existing end-of-pipe, concentration-control policies. To help mitigate the burden imposed on industries, emissions trading system will be launched in which industries that generate pollutants below the allowable level can sell their emission permits to those that have not.

In addition, Blue Sky 21 contains comprehensive measures to abate air pollution from automobiles. For manufactured vehicles, emission standards will be strengthened while the supply of zero to low-emission vehicles expanded. For transportation vehicles, inspection criterion will center on the assessment of environmental load. For commercial freight trucks, emissions treatment devices will be instated, whereas for old vehicles with heavy emissions, the government will provide subsidies to induce their early scrap. The government also plans to replace 3000 diesel buses with natural gas buses in the major cities by the end of 2002 and up to 20,000 by 2007. To facilitate this project, refueling stations will be constructed throughout the country.