Kim J, et al. Yonsei Med J. 2022 Mar;63(3):296-303. https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2022.63.3.296

The Seoul Eco-mileage Program is a representative project of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant (OLNPP) scheme, which addresses the energy transition policy of Seoul aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions. Unlike other governmental projects, the success of this program requires the direct participation of citizens. This study investigates the influence of civic engagement in participant towns (Level 1: 423 administrative towns) and districts (Level 2: 25 administrative districts) on CO₂ emissions reduction (kg CO₂/membership) throughout 2017 in Seoul via multilevel modeling. Our results show that town-level civic engagement, as measured by voter turnout, is positively correlated with the performance of the Eco-mileage Program. Moreover, when civic engagement factors (social trust, volunteer activities, and citizen participation) at Level 1 interact with Level 2 factors (housing prices, motivation of district leaders, and energy-saving practices) in each district, we observed cross-level interactive effects on CO₂ reduction. Among Level 2 factors, the representative institutional capacities, such as financial independence and ordinance, showed positive correlations with the performance efficacy of the energy transition policy of Seoul.

In April 2023, the Korean government announced its national emission pathways to achieve its 2030 NDC target of reducing GHG emissions by 40% compared to the 2018-level. The study provides an overview of the economic impacts of achieving the NDC target on the Korean economy, and particularly, it considers the different circumstances of the global mitigation efforts. The study collects the countries’ NDC target information, applies a global dynamic recursive CGE model with GTAP 11 database, and establishes seven scenarios with different global mitigation efforts and the recycling of carbon revenues. Three types of international cooperation scenarios are Global Cooperation, Partial cooperation without Korea, and Unilateral Commitment by Korea. The utilization of carbon revenues is another dimension of the scenarios. The result indicates that all regions experience negative impacts on real GDP under the Global Cooperation scenario with lump-sum tax transfer approach. With the labor tax recycling, the losses in real GDP decrease, and some regions, including Korea, show some positive economic impacts. Particularly, Korea experiences substantial benefits from double dividend. Moreover, Korea experiences relatively favorable impacts of carbon pricing on real GDI. In addition, all scenarios indicate some decrease in real exports and imports in all regions, and the result suggests that carbon pricing would lead to significant negative impacts on production, particularly of fossil fuel sectors. We also conduct a sensitivity analysis on key parameters, such as the elasticities of substitution between energy and genuine input factors, as well as those between different sources of energies.

This study aims to classify 226 local entities in Korea according to the type of climate vulnerability to provide appropriate climate adaptation policies that consider local characteristics. Using climate impact as the y-axis and adaptive capacity as the x-axis, we can create four types of vulnerability and plot 226 local entities on a quadrant. Unlike previous studies in this field, we consider the concept of uncertainty while calculating the exposure index, which is a climate impact component, by estimating the probability of disaster risk. In addition, using the principal component analysis method to calculate weights for each index increased the statistical robustness to our study. The results indicated that Type 1 areas (those with high climate impact and high adaptive capacity) included coastal regions or geographically vulnerable places that could overcome climatic restrictions through their high adaptive capacity. Type 2 areas (those with high climate impact and low adaptive capacity) were the most vulnerable, and included several local areas on the west coast of the Korean peninsula. Socially vulnerable groups in this area may need support from the central government to avoid negative climate impacts. Local entities in Type 3 areas (those with low climate impact and low adaptive capacity) pay less attention to climate adaptation issues, but they are exposed to the potential risks of climate impacts due to their low adaptive capacity. For Type 3 specifically, further education and enhancing public awareness on climate change adaptation are required. Last, Type 4 areas (low climate impact and high adaptive capacity) include mostly urban areas where vulnerability is the lowest, yet potential risk could be the highest due to large populations and extensive infrastructure. The findings will contribute to map out locally specified climate change adaptation policies in each local entity.

Assessing social impact remains challenging for small-scale, early-stage projects in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where existing Social Impact Assessment (SIA) frameworks are often too complex for organizations with limited capacity. This study develops a flexible SIA Application System tailored to innovation-oriented pilot projects operating under high uncertainty in LMICs. Refined through a qualitative case study of the Global Innovation Fund—using semi-structured interviews and document analysis across agriculture, water, and electricity sectors—the system integrates three components: (1) a refined framework of core assessment dimensions; (2) a structured process for local scoping and indicator selection; and (3) adaptive functions aligning assessment with project maturity, from pre-pilot to post-pilot phases. By repositioning SIA as a staged, learning-oriented process, the system balances feasibility and accountability, offering a practical tool for adaptive decision-making in high-uncertainty LMIC pilot contexts.