Status of Korea ETS and Strategies to improve in One Year After Launching - Through Comparing with EU ETS -

한국의 탄소배출권 거래제 시행 1년 후 현황과 개선방안 - EU 배출권 거래제와 비교를 통하여 -

Korea has introduced Korea Emissions Trading Scheme (Korea ETS) since 2015. However, not many companies voluntarily participate in the emissions trading. The goal of this paper is to provide the way to improve the Korea ETS. This study compares the Korea ETS with EU Emissions Trading System, which has been practiced for a decade, and suggests three strategies to activate the Korea Emissions Trading Scheme. The first thing is to encourage more companies to participate in the emissions trading since the number of companies in the emissions trading in Korea is quite limited compared with that of EU. The second thing is to activate the trading of Korean Credit Unit in order to stimulate various emission reduction mechanisms. Currently, the most of the trading in the emissions market is through the Korean Allowance Unit. The third thing is to establish concrete measures to continuously improve the Korea ETS. A comprehensive evaluation of the Korea ETS is needed along with the ongoing convergence with the associated comments. The improvement of Korea ETS would be one of the most efficient ways to compete the climate change, and would also play a role to raise the status of Korea.